Cobb courthouse checks net two illegal immigrants (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Cobb courthouse checks net two illegal immigrants

By Janel Davis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
9:55 p.m. Friday, September 3, 2010

Sheriff's investigators Thursday arrested two workers authorities said were using fraudulent documents while working on the Cobb County courthouse construction project.

Thursday’s arrests are the latest in a series of arrests made by the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office since August, when the agency began security checks of all workers on the courthouse project.

The two workers were taken into custody and are being held for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Marina Escalante and Jose Antonio Chavarria were hired through a temporary service to provide cleanup services on the $63 million project.

Escalante, 37, was arrested at the construction site. Chavarria, 32, was arrested in Atlanta.

A Sheriff's Office incident report says that while filling out a background check consent form on Aug. 18, Escalante listed a Social Security number belonging to a man in Longview, Texas, and a fradulent Permanent Resident Alien Card with a number that returned as a test number used for training purposes. Authorities say Escalante, who is from Chiapas, Mexico, admitted paying a coyote, or human trafficker, $2,000 to illegally enter the U.S. two years ago. Authorities also said she paid a person on Buford Highway $65 for the illegal identification cards.

Chavarria is accused of listing a false name and Social Security number on his Aug. 19 consent form and submitting a fraudulent Permanent Resident Alien Card. The Social Security number was an unassigned number, and the alien card number was assigned to someone else. Authorities said Chavarria, who is from Colon, Honduras, admitted to illegally entering the United States two years ago at a border crossing between Mexico and Texas. They also said he paid a person along Buford Highway $65 for the illegal documents.

As of Aug. 11, background checks have been completed on 760 workers.

Eight other workers have also been arrested on outstanding warrants, but not on charges of breaking immigration laws. The warrants came from other counties and involved offenses such as probation violation, nonpayment of child support and aggravated assault.

"In reviewing all of the arrests that resulted from this screening process, it is incredible to me that these individuals are so bold as to believe that they can violate the law and not face the consequences," Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren said in a statement about the illegal immigrant arrests Friday.

Warren was unavailable when repeated requests were made for interviews by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

After hearing from constituents still concerned about the possibility of illegal immigrants working on the courthouse project, county officials announced the sheriff's involvement.

Despite the project’s history, Warren has said the background checks were not put in place specifically to catch illegal immigrants.

Warren has said the security screenings are necessary now that the new courthouse has reached the stage where it will be connected to the existing judicial complex. He likened the courthouse background checks to those done on construction workers who built the new jail.

Conducting the background checks is not out of the ordinary for a sheriff's office, said Terry Norris, executive director of the Georgia Sheriff's Association. "It does not seem alarming at all to me. It is certainly something that the sheriff has the authority to do."

Since the Sheriff's Office took over the security checks, Jobs for Georgians -- an industry watchdog group -- has been satisfied, said John Ciancia, a representative for the group.

In February, 10 bricklayers and their foreman, Victor Candelaria, were removed from the job when it was found that their boss, a contractor for Zebra Construction, had not verified that they were legally allowed to work in the United States. Candelaria was later allowed back on the project.

State law requires contractors and subcontractors on public jobs to use a federal program called E-Verify, which runs names through a database and checks Social Security numbers and immigration information to ensure a person is allowed to work in the United States.

Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee plans to request a review by the county manager of the county's procedures "so that we don't have this come up in other projects," he said.

There is no additional cost to the Sheriff's Office to perform the background checks other than man-hours, sheriff's spokeswoman Nancy Bodiford said. "Such checks are just part of staff duties."