News - Local News

POSTED: Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009

Yamato workers freed as immigration probe continues into Bellingham company

BELLINGHAM - UPDATED 1:57 P.M. - Many if not all workers detained in the Feb. 24 immigration raid at Yamato Engine Specialists have been released from the federal detention center in Tacoma.

The unexpected move appears to be related to an ongoing federal investigation of Yamato.

"I can confirm that many of the individuals ... have indeed been released pending the further investigation of Yamato Engine," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lorie Dankers.

Besides their freedom, the workers also have permission to look for work.

The workers have been given a document advising them "that per the Assistant United States Attorney assigned to this case, all persons involved with the Yamato Engine Specialists ... should be afforded the benefit of Deferred Action and an Employment Authorization Document, valid for the duration of this case."

The workers also have the option of declining the release and work permit offer and returning to their home country.

Dankers said the document would have to speak for itself, and she could not comment further on an ongoing investigation. Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, said the same.

In a statement released Tuesday, Yamato officials said they do not hire illegal workers.

"It has been and continues to be Yamato’s policy to hire people only if they meet the legal requirements for employment," the company said in a press release. "Yamato requires all prospective employees to present government-required documents to prove that they are entitled to work in the U.S."

The statement also said that the company "is confident that the Government’s investigation will show that Yamato has complied fully with the law."

President Barack Obama and his Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, have indicated they want to shift immigration enforcement policy away from workplace raids that target workers, cracking down instead on the employers who hire those workers.

Rosalinda Guillen, executive director of the immigrant rights group Community to Community Development, said it was her understanding that all of the remaining Yamato workers detained in the raid had been freed late Thursday, March 26, and they have come back to Bellingham to be reunited with their families.

ICE officers arrested 28 workers in last month's raid. Three were women who were released later in the day to care for their children, pending a hearing on their immigration status. Guillen said two others have already been deported, but all of the rest have now been released.

Dankers said she could not confirm or deny that all the remaining workers are now free, and could not comment on any individuals' cases.

Guillen said the freeing of workers was surprising, because those detained in immigration raids can expect to be jailed for months to await a hearing, unless they can post large amounts of bail or are willing to accept immediate return to their homelands.

While the release of the workers is a welcome development, Guillen also expressed concern that the workers are being confronted with complex legal decisions about the consequences of cooperating in a federal investigation, without having lawyers to represent them. She said the workers have been told to expect further questioning from Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

"It's basically offering them a work permit, but they don't have any legal representation," Guillen said. "How can they (prosecutors) be negotiating with these workers if they don't have legal representation? We don't know how long that work permit is going to be for, or what they have to do to keep it."