Immigration and Naturalization Service agents raided two Franklin Park businesses Thursday and arrested 56 people allegedly working in the U.S. illegally.
The raids were carried out at Kar-Rite International, which manufactures car-top luggage carriers, and Americomm Direct Marketing, a direct-mail company that distributes advertising and other materials.
Agents arrested 39 employees at Kar-Rite and 17 at Americomm. Purchased in 1991, Americomm is a subsidiary of Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune.
The raids were part of Operation Jobs, an INS campaign begun in February that targets employers. Including Thursday’s raids, the campaign has resulted in 575 arrests.
Rose Alonzo, a spokeswoman for the INS Chicago office, said the Franklin Park companies were randomly selected. Agents requested documentation of all employees and arrested workers who lacked appropriate papers or whose documents appeared to be falsified.
“We are not necessarily faulting the employers,” Alonzo said. “Sometimes businesses believe they’ve complied with the law, but what employers think are good documents may have been altered.”
Under the Immigration Reform and Control Act, penalties for hiring or continuing to employ illegal immigrants are up to $2,000 for first-time offenders, $5,000 for second offenses and $10,000 for subsequent offenses.
Americomm President Vincent Casanova said he had no idea why 17 of his production workers were taken into custody.
“They (INS agents) did an audit of us and took all the documents and reviewed them,” he said. “What their conclusions were, I don’t know, but we have documentation for every single employee.”
Jerry Sweeney, a controller at Kar-Rite International, did not return several calls.
