59 arrested at Lansdowne near Leesburg by ICE; Loudoun Sheriff’s office “did not participate.” Updated

Yesterday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted a raid at the exclusive Lansdowne Resort near Leesburg, VA and arrested 59 people on immigrations violations. Of those, 53 were arrested on site and on the job. How did they know to run the raid there?

The investigation started in early July 2007 after a routine inspection of all I-9 employment eligibility verification forms at the resort, just east of Leesburg off Route 7.

Through analysis of the I-9 forms, ICE agents identified information that led them to suspect that many of the employees were using fraudulent documents or had stolen someone else’s identity to secure jobs at the resort. The investigation is ongoing.

Emphasis mine. In short, they actually checked on the information provided by the employee and collected by the employer. This is good work and I commend ICE for their success here. I certainly hope they’re going to pursue matters to find out who hired these guys and whether they knew the illegals were illegal. ICE says that all 59 are facing deportation. Hopefully, they’ll get that in gear sooner than later and find ways to keep them from coming back outside of legal channels.

One would have assumed that ICE would engage local law enforcement in such a matter. One would be wrong, in this case:

Steve Simpson, Loudoun County sheriff, said his department did not participate in the raid.

Yeah, that looks good on us, Sheriff. I mean, after all that talk and all that cooperation while you were trying to get re-elected (you know, after reneging on your promise – which you signed – to support the Republican nominee) to have ICE run an op like this literally in your back yard while your guys sit on the sidelines looks weak. Anemic. In the end, I was right about all your gum-flapping about getting serious on the illegal immigration issue. You were lying through your teeth. I won’t forget that and I’m going to make damn sure as many people as I can reach don’t forget it, either.

It’s a good thing ICE is stepping up to handle the issue that clearly exists in this county, even if our various elected officials don’t want to admit it.

Update: I got the print edition of this story this morning and the version in there is a bit different than what’s on line, even at the moment I’m writing this update. According to the print version, Simpson said the department did not participate but confirmed to the reporter that the raid did take place. He told the reporter they only had 2 uniformed officers out there. One presumes he means they were “out there” for the purposes of observing the raid and not for the Valor Awards ceremony that was going on.