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LINDON - Utah's simmering immigration debate shifted from the state Capitol to ground level in Utah County on Thursday.
More than 50 undocumented workers were arrested here during a morning raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on a metal factory.
The U.S. Department of Justice then unsealed indictments, charging the company, Universal Industrial Sales, Inc., with 10 counts of harboring illegal aliens, and its human resource manager, Alejandro "Alex" Urrutia-Garcia, with two counts of encouraging or inducing undocumented workers to remain in the U.S. illegally.
In doing so, the U.S. Attorney's Office of Utah and ICE appeared to signal a new strategy - one in which federal authorities are now targeting employers suspected of violating immigrations laws.
"This is a message to businesses. We're going after the ones actively participating in illegal hiring," said Brett Tolman, the U.S. Attorney for Utah.
The ICE sweep at Universal Sales, which has made metal highway signs and guard rails here for 30 years, comes at a time when Utah lawmakers are debating about 15 immigration-related measures during the Legislature. Some lawmakers say states need to start implementing legislation because Congress and the federal government have failed to do anything about illegal immigration.
"The federal government has failed the American people in this regard and forced the states to step up and address it," said Sen. Bill Hickman, R-St. George.
Thursday's raid started at about 8 a.m., when about 100 law enforcement officers showed up unannounced at the company's warehouse and began arresting workers, ICE spokesman Tim Counts said.
At least half of the company's 100 employees were arrested on federal immigration administrative charges by Thursday evening, but ICE agents still were not finished processing workers, Counts said. So far, he said, none of the workers was being criminally charged.
Melanie Snow, the wife of Universal Sales' founder, Martin Snow, was upset about how the roundup was conducted.
"My husband always did everything legally and by the book," Melanie Snow said. "And now to have government agents come in . . . and try to take that business away from him just isn't right."
But U.S. Attorney Tolman said that Thursday's sweep was handled much differently than the last ICE enforcement operation against a Utah business - the December 2006 sweep at the Swift meatpacking plant in Hyrum.
In that raid, 154 undocumented Latino workers were arrested and all but seven were charged with violating federal and state identity fraud statutes and immigration violations. The sweep, part of a national operation that netted about 1,300 undocumented Swift workers, separated husbands from wives and parents from their children.
But Tolman noted that no criminal charges are being filed against the Universal workers. And, unlike the Swift prosecutions, no children were left without relatives to watch them. No sole breadwinners or caregivers were jailed.
"As prosecutors, we must be mindful of the compassionate and humanitarian side of the case," he said.
And Melanie Snow said ICE agents did return her husband's files on the jobs he has been working on. "At least he can take care of his current customers," she said.
As for the workers arrested, Counts said most of them probably would be taken to county jail, where they would have a bond set depending on charges against them. One man was released for health reasons, he said. Counts also said that many of them likely would be scheduled for an immigration hearing in the next several weeks.
Urrutia-Garcia, meanwhile, pleaded not guilty in his initial court appearance Thursday afternoon. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count. The 39-year-old Provo resident and naturalized U.S. citizen was released from government custody but must appear in court for a hearing next week. A four-day trial is set to begin April 14.
As with previous immigration sweeps, Thursday's raid set off a panic in the local Latino Community. About 150 people gathered Thursday night at Orem's St. Francis Catholic Church for a Mass and meeting.
Jose Luis Uribe, 21, who has worked at Universal for two years, was detained but was let go when he proved his legal status.
"You feel so bad for all your co-workers who were arrested," he said at the meeting. "They asked me for help but I couldn't do anything."
Alejandra Sanchez's husband was arrested during the raid. She said she went to the meeting because she doesn't know what she is going to do without her husband since she doesn't work but needs to feed their three children.
"Everything crumbled for me because of my children," she said, crying. "What am I going to say to them?"
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* Tribune reporters STEVE OBERBECK, NATHAN C. GONZALEZ, DONALD W. MEYERS and ROXANA ORELLANA contributed to this report.
A recent history
* In December 2006, immigration agents entered the Swift meat-packing plant in Hyrum, Utah, as part of the largest immigration enforcement raid on a business in U.S. history. About 1,300 undocumented workers were arrested at six plants nationwide. In Hyrum, ICE arrested 154 undocumented Latino workers and charged all but seven of them with violating federal and state identity fraud statutes and immigration violations.
* In April 2006, 13 undocumented workers were arrested at IFCO Systems North America Inc. facility in Tooele as part of a nationwide raid on the company. Federal agents arrested seven current and former IFCO managers and more than 1,100 workers at more than 40 IFCO sites across the country. The Netherlands-based company that makes crates and pallets.
* In February 2003, immigration agents raided Champion Safe in Provo, detaining 107 of the company's 150 employees. Ray Crosby, the company's principal, was fined $80,000 and put on three years' probation for harboring illegal immigrants.
* In December 2001, immigration agents raided the Salt Lake International Airport, where 271 employees were fired and a third of them were arrested and charged with falsifying documents to get work in secure areas. All of those charged worked for airport subcontractors that provide security screening, food services, aircraft refueling, cargo handling, cleaning services, airline maintenance and construction.