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Posted: 6:46 PM- For Utah business owners it was the stuff of nightmares.
After armed agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement descended Thursday upon the Lindon-based Universal Industrial Sales, business owners throughout the state suddenly were fearful they too someday may find themselves facing a similar onslaught.
"There are really two types of business owners in Utah - those who are willing to ignore [immigration] laws for their own profit and those who sincerely try to do the very best they can to follow the rules," said Clark Ivory, chief executive officer at Ivory Homes in Salt Lake City.
Both are equally nervous now because of the raid, he said.
The federal immigration sweep at Universal Industrial Sales, a company that produces highway signs and guard rails for customers that include the Utah Department of Transportation, resulted in 57 employees who allegedly didn't have the proper work papers being taken into custody.
The company, which lost about half its workforce as the result of the crackdown, faces 10 federal charges of knowingly harboring immigrants who are in the country illegally. It faces a maximum penalty of $500,000 for each count - or more than enough to bankrupt most small businesses.
The company declined to answer questions today about the raid or its effect on operations.
"Hopefully we can take the government at their word that if a business is responsible and makes an honest effort to comply with the law that they'll be OK," said Leland Hogan, Utah Farm Bureau president. "At the same time our members are very, very worried."
The reason for the trepidation is there is no system in place that farmers and other business owners can really rely upon to catch job applicants who may be using false papers or are in the country illegally.
"A business owner is only allowed to delve into a person's background so far. If they delve beyond that, then they could get in trouble for going too far," Hogan said. "We're dealing with a horrible system that needs to be fixed, darn it."
Yet Brett Tolman, the U.S. Attorney for Utah, said the government is only going after companies that it believes are actively participating in hiring undocumented workers for their own profit.
"The nature of this problem is that anybody can be deceived, duped or tricked into hiring someone they shouldn't," Tolman said. "But if a business isn't trying to cover up illegal hiring or if management isn't knowingly ignoring a problem, then they just don't have to worry."
Jorge Fierro, the owner of Rico Mexican Market in Salt Lake City, nevertheless frets that even his best efforts to follow the law may not be enough.
"As a business owner I can't help but worry," he said. "We need a system in place that we can rely upon - one where we know that by following the rules the government will be satisfied with what we've done," he said.