51 employees, as well as the current and past supervisor, were arrested in an Immigration raid on a Palm Springs bakery yesterday. Immigration and Customs enforcement said they began an investigation in 2006 after a tip-off about illegal immigrants. They found nearly 100 of the 130 employees were using Social Security numbers that were fake or unmatched, belonging to other California employees or people who were deceased. The two supervisors are suspected of taking $3,000 from each immigrant in exchange for a position. They face criminal charges and up to six months in prison. The arrests are part of a recent increase in immigration enforcement ? in the last 11 months, 5,770 have been arrested.
See "51 illegal immigrants, 2 others, arrested in raid at Palm Springs bakery", Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2008