RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
January 18, 2008
The federal government will allow at least two dozen of the 56 immigrants swept up in a September raid of area McDonald's restaurants to temporarily stay in Nevada as it continues its investigation of businesses that hire illegal workers.
The 56 suspected undocumented workers were arrested Sept. 27 in raids of 11 Reno-area McDonald's restaurants. So far, federal authorities have agreed to allow 24 of those workers to remain in the U.S. under a temporary status agreement, according to the lawyer representing 28 of the workers.
"Some of the individuals will be allowed to stay temporarily under a policy called deferred enforced departure," said Woody Wright. "It's a discretionary thing while (the government) is in the process of an investigation. They will hold off on any immigration court proceedings for a period of time."
Those who received temporary status are allowed to work and those who find jobs can be issued special Social Security cards, he said. The process could extend their stay from one to two years, said Wright, who represented the workers for free with the help of Nevada Hispanic Services.
"To my knowledge, none of my clients have any criminal charges pending," Wright said, but he noted the workers will eventually have to go through civil deportation proceedings in immigration court.
"Basically these clients got lucky, but it's only short-term luck," he said. "They still have to go before a judge."
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the McDonald's restaurants after receiving a tip that a manager in the Fernley McDonald's was working under someone else's Social Security number.
The agency arrested 54 people at 11 area McDonald's and two elsewhere. At the time ICE agents said the raids were part of an effort "to focus on employers who build in hiring illegal workers as part of their business practice."
Agency spokeswoman Virginia Kice said Thursday the investigation is ongoing and the agency "is not going to speculate about the possible outcome."
No charges have been filed against Luther Mack, owner of the McDonald's restaurants. Mack said Thursday he had no comment on the case.
Kice said she could not confirm the number of workers who were given deferred enforcement status in the McDonald's cases.
"(But) I want to underscore that ICE conducts enforcement actions lawfully, professionally and humanely and takes extraordinary steps to identify, document and act on humanitarian concerns of the illegal aliens arrested for immigration and other violations," she said. "The enforcement action in Reno and the ongoing investigation are no exception."
Of the 56 workers identified during the raids, ICE released two on-site. They were mailed notices to appear at future immigration proceedings.
The other 54 workers were sent to a processing center where 29 were released on their own recognizance based upon "humanitarian concerns," Kice said.
At least seven workers have been deported to Mexico because they had been arrested in the past and already had been through administrative proceedings in front of an immigration judge, ICE officials said.
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