Landscape contracting and maintenance business owners have been active in the nation?EUR??,,????'???s ongoing immigration debate, often calling for a new guest worker plan. Many landscape workers may be illegal, but current law requires employers to accept presented documents if they appear to be genuine.

The April sweeps, however, targeted a company that had been repeatedly warned about its irregular hiring practices.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the results of the sting, calling it the largest worksite enforcement operation in U.S. history.

“In fact, we arrested more people in this single worksite enforcement operation than in the entirety of last year,” he said

Sept. 11, 2001 radically changed enforcement priorities. In 1999 there were 2,849 arrests of unauthorized workers. By 2003, the government reported just 445 arrests. Close to 7 million undocumented laborers are thought to be working in the U.S.

Chertoff said agents of Immigration and Custom Enforcement raided the offices and plants of IFCO Systems across the country. The raids resulted in the arrests of seven managers and 1,187 of the firm’s illegal employees across 26 states. Chertoff said about 53 percent of the firm’s employees during 2005 had invalid or mismatched Social Security numbers.

Seven current and former IFCO managers were charged with conspiracy to transport, harbor and encourage illegal workers to continue working for the company. Chertoff warned that the investigation into IFCO is continuing and there may be more charges filed in the coming weeks and months.

“The charges in the criminal complaints allege harboring aliens for illegal advantage and, in two instances, document fraud. I want to emphasize the investigation is continuing. At some point, further charges may be brought,” he said.

Raids took place at several locations in upstate New York, Biglerville, Pa.; Charlotte, N.C.; Cincinnati, Houston, Phoenix, Richmond, Va., and Westborough, Mass. German-based IFCO Systems is a leading provider of pallet services in the U.S., focusing on recycling millions of wooden platforms used to stack and move goods.

Chertoff said the sting operation was part of a larger program to crack down on companies that violate the nation’s immigration worker laws.

“The fact of the matter is we are looking at organizations that promote the harboring and the hiring of illegal, undocumented workers. We’re looking at them in the same way we look at other criminal organizations,” he said.

Chertoff warned that companies who chose not to use tools that ensure that their workers are legal will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

“When people choose not to use those tools or they ignore obvious violation of the law in hiring people who are not properly in this country, then we’ve got to apply tough sanctions and increased enforcement against people who are willful law violators,” Chertoff said.

Some immigrant rights advocates question the timing of these raids, coming as thousands of demonstrators are taking to the streets in many cities protesting proposals pending in Congress.

“This is just intimidation, plain intimidation,” said Jorge Mujica.

While Chertoff is promising a continued crackdown on employers who hire illegal workers, Congress is slated to get back to work on an immigration reform bill when lawmakers return from spring break.