A two-year investigation into immigrants with fake identity documents led to federal officials detaining 48 workers at a South Carolina metal casting business and six people facing state charges, including two top managers at the plant, authorities announced Thursday.
Dozens of officials with federal and local law enforcement agencies raided Burnstein von Seelen Precision Castings in Abbeville on Wednesday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers took the workers into custody on alleged immigration violations, and 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.
The company officials were indicted by a state grand jury, along with four other people accused of making and selling false U.S. and state identifications using information from identity thefts.
“We want to send a message that this isn’t about going after people who are trying to feed their family,” Wilson said. “This isn’t going after companies or businesses who unknowingly hiring illegal. 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 license, fake immigration documents.”
Officials at Burnstein von Seelen did not immediately return messages left by phone and through its website,
The two company managers were expected to appear at the Richland County Courthouse in Columbia on Thursday to face charges of criminal conspiracy and identity fraud to obtain employment. It was not immediately clear if they had lawyers who could respond to the allegations.
Burnstein von Seelen, founded in 1985, is a metals casting business, using different alloys of copper, brass and bronze to make an array of components, according to its website. It is located in Abbeville County, population around 25,000, in western South Carolina not far from the Georgia line, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of Columbia.
ICE officials said they were reviewing the immigration status of the 48 workers who were detained, who they said included people who have had previous encounters with ICE and some who were previously ordered deported.
Authorities said the investigation is continuing, and more indictments and arrests were possible.
The American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina said it was seeking more information about the detention of the immigrant workers. It also expressed skepticism in general about initial government statements about ICE operations, because of what it called incorrect descriptions about other immigration enforcement actions around the country.
“The bottom line is that these employees showed up for work, and many of them will not be able to return home to their families,” said Jace Woodrum, the group’s executive director, in a statement. “In other states, we’ve seen similar actions include gross violations of individual liberties that are guaranteed to all regardless of immigration status.”
State officials began the probe began in October 2024. At the time it started, local law enforcement officials were frustrated by a lack of federal enforcement efforts against false identifications and identity theft under President Joe Biden’s administration, Wilson said. That changed, he said, when President Donald Trump took office last year, and federal authorities joined the state investigation, he said.
Wednesday’s raid at the plant was not typical of Trump’s mass deportation efforts that have garnered criticism. Immigration raids at businesses have been a relatively small part of the deportation campaign, and state officials played a leading role in the South Carolina investigation.
Officials approached the investigation in ways similar to drug probes, said prosecutor Creighton Waters, pursuing not just the people using the phony documentation but those supplying it.
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