60 Airport Workers Arrested
Federal agents uncover immigration violations and document fraud in sweep of Calif. airports.

August 23, 2002

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal agents arrested at least 60 airport workers, many with access to restricted areas that include planes and runways, for allegedly using false identification at Southern California airports.

The raid Thursday, part of a national sweep started last fall known as "Operation Tarmac," uncovered immigration violations and document fraud, but found no connections to terrorist groups, authorities said.

"It was very low-key," said Ontario International Airport Police Acting Chief David Hanlon. "They talked to the people they were looking for and they took them away."

The workers were employed by private companies as janitors, baggage handlers and maintenance workers at Los Angeles International, Ontario International, Long Beach Municipal and John Wayne airports.

Most of the workers arrested at John Wayne, in Orange County, were Hispanic immigrants lacking proof of legal residency.

Nationwide, hundreds of workers with access to high-security areas of airports have been arrested in sweeps since Sept. 11.

Most of the arrests involved charges of using phony Social Security numbers, lying about past criminal convictions or being in the United States illegally. Other areas targeted have included Washington, Baltimore, Phoenix, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Charlotte, N.C.

The Federal Aviation Administration in October ordered background checks of an estimated 750,000 airport and airline employees who could enter secured areas of airports.

Thursday's raids in Southern California involved the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, U.S. Marshals Service, the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles declined to comment but said more information would be released Friday.

Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, said the raid wasn't focused on terrorism but on immigrants.

"It's a disgrace," Medina said. "President Bush is punishing hard-working immigrants for the crimes committed last September by terrorists. These people are not terrorists — they only want to work."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-08-23-airport-crackdown_x.htm