50 Lindon workers nabbed in federal immigration raid

Thursday night at the St. Francis Catholic Church in Orem, Reina Isabel-Alvarado wiped tears from her cheeks and rubbed her hand roughly over her eyes.

Her husband had been arrested earlier in the day, one of more than 50 people taken away by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a raid at a Lindon manufacturing plant.

"I don't know what is going to happen to my husband. I don't know what is going to happen to our family," Isabel-Alvarado said in Spanish. "Our lives are in their (ICE's) hands."

The federal raid targeted Universal Industrial Sales Inc., which manufactures a variety of highway products, such as guard rails, bridge rails and sign structures.

Employee Jose Luis Uribe, 21, who is in the U.S. legally, said federal officials separated workers into two groups: employees who had papers and those who were illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigrants, tagged at the wrist with red or yellow bands, cried as they handed their car keys and cell phones to their co-workers, asking them to tell their families not to worry. Some pleaded "for help from (those) with papers," Uribe said.

"They put a red band on the people from Mexico and a yellow band on those from South and Central America," Uribe said. "They (ICE officials) entered running. We thought there was a fire or something."

The human resources manager at Universal Industrial Sales pleaded not guilty later Thursday in federal court to charges of harboring illegal immigrants.

Alejandro Alex Urrutia-Garcia, 39, of Provo, faces two counts of encouraging illegal immigrants to remain in the United States unlawfully. Each charge carries up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 fines, if convicted.

The indictment was one of two unsealed in U.S. District Court on the heels of the raid.

UIS is charged with 10 counts of harboring immigrants between January 2003 to December 2006 for "commercial advantage" and faces $500,000 in fines, or twice the amount of any pecuniary gains, for each count.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for Utah, Urrutia-Garcia is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He was released from prison Thursday, pending a hearing Tuesday. A four-day trial was scheduled to start April 14.

Telephone messages left at Universal were not returned. The Lindon-based company employs more than 100 individuals, according to its Web site.

Family and friends, stunned by the raid, gathered Thursday night at St. Francis to learn what could be done for their loved ones.