State and federal officials announced another major immigration bust in South Carolina in early June. More than 50 people were arrested following a two-year investigation into immigrants with fake identity documents working at a metal casting business.
The State Grand Jury indicted six people on criminal charges, while 48 workers at the Burnstein von Seelen Precision Castings in Abbeville were detained by federal immigration agents.
The company’s plant manager and human resources director were arrested on allegations they knowingly hired immigrants in the U.S. illegally, state Attorney General Alan Wilson said at a news conference as quoted by the Associated Press.
Officials said they were going after the people suspected of selling them false papers for hiring purposes. Four people were charged with forgery and identity fraud for allegedly creating and selling false documents to workers who needed them, the South Carolina Daily Gazette reported.
“This is about going after something much larger, you know, a conspiracy of people around South Carolina to steal identities, to create fake Social Security cards, fake driver’s licenses, fake immigration documents,” Wilson said.
Authorities said the investigation is continuing, and more indictments and arrests were possible.
State officials launched the probe in October 2024, after local law enforcement officers reported the allegations of identity fraud and the business employing illegal workers to the state attorney general’s office.
Local police were frustrated over the rampant false identifications and identity theft under President Joe Biden’s administration, Wilson said.
The city and county of Abbeville are not among the 42 police and sheriff’s departments that have signed onto the ICE partnership, called 287(g) agreements.
Wilson said the investigation is “not a political issue at all,” and the state would have pursued the operation either way, he said.
ICE is processing the 48 workers arrested with the intention of deporting anyone who lacks the proper paperwork to live in the country. Most of the workers came from Guatemala or Mexico, said Maria Somers, assistant field office director for ICE.
The attorney general’s office investigated the case the way it would a drug bust with the help of undercover work and witnesses, said Creighton Waters, chief attorney overseeing the State Grand Jury.
“It’s so easy for people to get those, so that’s the problem that we needed to fight,” Waters said.
The false documents often listed real Social Security and driver’s license numbers, which constitutes identity fraud, he said.
“This investigation is not about targeting hard-working people that are just trying to put food on the table, but we cannot ignore identity theft,” Waters said. “We cannot ignore blatant violations of the law.”
