Immigration agents arrest 114 at Ohio landscaper

More than 100 workers at an Ohio gardening and landscaping company were arrested Tuesday when about 200 federal officers descended on the business and carried out one of the largest workplace immigration raids in recent years.

Government agents take a suspect into custody during an immigration sting at Corso's Flower and Garden Center, Tuesday, June 5, 2018, in Castalia, Ohio. The operation is one of the largest against employers in recent years on allegations of violating immigration laws. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

The operation was part of the White House's increasing focus on businesses that hire people in the country illegally amid a broad range of immigration crackdowns under President Donald Trump that include stepped-up deportations, targeting of sanctuary cities and zero-tolerance border policies.

The 114 arrests occurred at two locations of Corso's Flower & Garden Center, one in Sandusky, a resort city on Lake Erie, and another in nearby Castalia. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it expected criminal charges including identity theft and tax evasion.

No criminal charges were filed against the company, but the employer is under investigation, authorities said. Two locations were searched, and Khaalid Walls, an agency spokesman, said "a large volume of business documents" were seized.

The operation drew criticism over its heavy show of force that involved aircraft surveillance and a large contingent of federal agents to round up workers at a family business. It also highlights a tightrope President Donald Trump's administration is walking as it seeks to please immigration hawks but risks alienating business-friendly Republicans struggling to find enough workers in a tight job market.

EMBARGOED UNTIL 10AM 6.5.2018 Government agents stand guard alongside apprehended suspects during an immigration sting at Corso's Flower and Garden Center, Tuesday, June 5, 2018, in Castalia, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

In April, agents made about 100 worker arrests at a meatpacking plant in rural Tennessee, another high-profile show of force reminiscent of President George W. Bush's administration. No criminal charges have been filed against the employer.

Tuesday's operation was carried out with quiet efficiency. At the Castalia facility — covered with trees, flowers and greenhouse tarps — no workers were seen running as about 100 law enforcement officials established a perimeter. A voice on a radio called attention to specific employees who might try to flee, but none did.

Corso's did not return a message seeking comment on the operation.

Corso's describes itself as a family-owned company that serves seven states with a 160,000-square-foot (15,000-square-meter) greenhouse and additional 200,000 square feet (19,000 square meters) to grow perennials. Its Sandusky facility is on the city's busiest road amid hotels and fast-food joints that cater to tourists who drive by in the summer on their way to Lake Erie and Cedar Point amusement park.

Securing such sprawling facilities typically involves an enormous law enforcement presence to secure the perimeters.

A government agent takes a suspect into custody during an immigration sting at Corso's Flower and Garden Center, Tuesday, June 5, 2018, in Castalia, Ohio. The operation is one of the largest against employers in recent years on allegations of violating immigration laws. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Josie Gonzalez, a Los Angeles attorney who represents businesses on immigration matters, questioned why the arrests couldn't have been made with fewer resources, perhaps by visiting worker homes based on addresses Corso's provided to authorities. She suspects the government wanted publicity.

"Government is overreaching and trying to make a big splash, instill fear in the business community and immigrant communities and make the headlines," she said. "It's a tremendous use of resources to accomplish that purpose."

The investigation into Corso's began in October 2017 when the U.S. Border Patrol arrested a woman who gave stolen identity documents to job applicants in the country illegally, said Steve Francis, head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations unit in Detroit.

The document vendor led investigators to the landscaping company, where they examined documents in its files for irregularities, Francis said. Some Social Security numbers belonged to dead people.

Of the 313 employees whose records were examined, 123 were found suspicious and targeted for arrest and criminal charges of identity theft and, in nearly all cases, tax evasion. Francis said the identity theft targeted U.S. citizens who had no idea their information was being used at the Ohio business.

EMBARGOED UNTIL 10AM 6.5.2018 Government agents apprehend suspects during an immigration sting at Corso's Flower and Garden Center, Tuesday, June 5, 2018, in Castalia, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

"We verified that a lot of U.S. persons were obviously unaware of this. It's caused them a lot of hardship," Francis said.

Immigration officials have sharply increased audits of companies to verify their employees are authorized to work in the country. There were 2,282 employer audits opened between Oct. 1 and May 4, nearly a 60 percent jump from the 1,360 audits opened between October 2016 and September 2017. Many of those reviews were launched after audits began at 100 7-Eleven franchises in 17 states in January.

After Starbucks fired seven workers who were trying to unionize their Tennessee store, a U.S. government agency obtained a court order forcing the company to rehire them. Now, Starbucks wants the Supreme Court to curb the government’s power in such cases.

On Tuesday, justices are scheduled to hear Starbucks’ case against the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that protects the right of employees to organize. If the court sides with Starbucks, it could make it tougher for the NLRB to step in when it alleges corporate interference in unionization efforts.

The hearing comes even as the animosity between Starbucks and Workers United, the union organizing its workers, has begun to fade. The two sides announced in February that they would restart talks with the aim of reaching contract agreements this year. Starbucks and union representatives planned to meet Tuesday for their first bargaining session in nearly a year.

Workers at 420 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since late 2021, but none of those stores has secured a labor agreement with Starbucks.

The case before the Supreme Court began in February 2022, when Starbucks fired seven employees who were leading a unionization effort in Memphis, Tennessee. Starbucks argued the employees had violated policy by reopening the store after closing time and inviting non-employees — including a television news crew — to come inside.

The National Labor Relations Board determined the firings constituted an illegal interference with workers’ right to organize. The agency found that Starbucks had routinely allowed off-duty employees and non-employees to remain in the store after hours to make drinks or collect belongings.

The NLRB asked a federal district court to intervene and require Starbucks to rehire the workers while the case wound its way through the agency’s administrative proceedings. A district court judge agreed with the NLRB and issued a temporary injunction ordering Starbucks to rehire the workers in August 2022. After the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling, Starbucks appealed to the Supreme Court.

Five of the seven workers are still employed at the Memphis store, while the other two remain involved with the organizing effort, according to Workers United. The Memphis store voted to unionize in June 2022.

Starbucks said the Supreme Court should intervene because federal appeals courts don't agree on the standards the NLRB must meet when it requests a temporary injunction against a company. Starbucks says temporary injunctions can be a major burden for companies, since the NLRB's administrative process can take years.

Since 1947, the National Labor Relations Act — the law that governs the agency — has allowed courts to grant temporary injunctions requested by the NLRB if it finds them “just and proper.” In its review of what transpired at the Starbucks store in Memphis, the Sixth Circuit required the NLRB to establish two things: that it had reasonable cause to believe unfair labor practices occurred and that a restraining order would be a “just and proper” solution.

But other federal appeals courts have required the NLRB to meet a four-factor test when seeking restraining orders, including showing it was likely to prevail in the administrative case and employees would suffer irreparable harm without an injunction.

Starbucks has asked the Supreme Court to establish the four-factor test as the standard all courts must follow when considering NLRB injunction cases.

“This court’s intervention is urgently needed,” Starbucks wrote in an October court filing. “National employers like Starbucks must defend themselves against years-long injunctions under materially different tests depending on where alleged unfair labor practices occur or where employers reside.”

The NLRB says it already considers its likelihood of success before taking a case to court, making whether courts apply two factors or four largely irrelevant. The agency notes that it rarely asks courts for temporary injunctions; in its 2023 fiscal year, it received 19,869 charges of unfair labor practices and authorized the filing of 14 cases seeking temporary injunctions.

“The two-part inquiry undertaken by the Sixth Circuit and other courts ... subjects board petitions to meaningful scrutiny, and does not call for courts merely to ‘rubber-stamp’ agency requests,” the NLRB argued in a filing last month.

Durbin reported from Detroit.

FILE - Starbucks employees and supporters link arms during a union election watch party Dec. 9, 2021, in Buffalo, N.Y. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in a case filed by Starbucks against the National Labor Relations Board. (AP Photo/Joshua Bessex, File)