Immigration agents arrest more than 100 at Ohio landscaping company

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents reportedly arrested 114 employees at a gardening and landscaping company in northern Ohio on Tuesday.
The arrests took place in Sandusky and Castalia, Ohio, at two Corso’s Flower & Garden Center locations, according to The Associated Press.
ICE told the news service that the employees are expected to be charged with identity theft and tax evasion. No charges have been filed against the company, according to the AP, but authorities say it is under investigation.
{mosads}The sting at the landscaping company comes amid President Trump’s crackdown on businesses that hire immigrants in the country illegally.
Corso’s had reportedly been under investigation since October. Steve Francis, an ICE official in Detroit, told the AP that the probe was launched after the arrest of a woman who handed out stolen identity documents to job applicants who were in the country illegally.
That arrest reportedly led investigators to Corso’s, where 123 employees were found to have suspicious records.
“We verified that a lot of U.S. persons were obviously unaware of this. It’s caused them a lot of hardship,” Francis said. “It’s not one that we’re looking for strictly as a worksite immigration raid.”
The arrests come a couple months after ICE agents carried out the largest workplace raid in a decade, according to The Washington Post. Nearly 100 people were arrested at Southeastern Provision in Grainger County, Tenn.
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