Sanford, North Carolina –-(Ammoland.com)- On Tuesday morning at 8 AM, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement executed a search warrant and took approximately 30 people into custody at the firearms manufacture, Bear Creek Arsenal, located in Sanford, North Carolina.
ICE officials with the help of the local Sheriff’s Department gather all the employees of Bear Creek Arsenal into a break room. Officials started checking their IDs and detained anyone who’s ID didn’t check out. If the person didn’t have IDs authorities held them until they could ascertain their identity.
ICE agents loaded the 30 employees that they detained on a bus and took them to a holding facility. Not all 30 people are still in ICE custody. Some of those that immigration officials detained were released when their identity was able to be confirmed. It is unclear how many workers are still in custody.
The morning raid was of the result of an ongoing investigation by investigation by ICE agents into identity theft and fraud. According to The Lee County Sheriff’s Office, the was raid was not the result of an immigration enforcement action.
“What I want Lee County residents to know is that this was not a random operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Lee County,” Sheriff Tracy Carter said in a statement. “This was the result of an ongoing investigation by Immigration and Customs and isolated to one location.”
Chris Barnes, an immigration attorney in Chapel Hill, represents one of those workers that was taken into custody. According to Barnes, ICE agents informed him immigration officials were searching for fraudulent I-9s. ICE later released his client.
The Department of Homeland Security uses the I-9 form to verify the employment eligibility of an applicant. Every worker in the country is supposed to fill out these forms when hired to confirm they can work in the country legally.
People in the country illegally will sometimes use a stolen name and Social Security number to obtain employment. Sometimes these workers will use a made-up name and fake Social Security number in hopes that their employer does not check through the E-Verify system, but since this raid was due to an investigation into identity theft and fraud, the workers in question probably used stolen information.
According to Bear Creek Arsenal, the company is fully cooperating with immigration officials in the investigation. In a released statement the company deflected the notion that they did anything wrong.
Bear Creek issued the following statement:
Today there were several employees who were detained by law enforcement. This is the result of an investigation conducted by Homeland Security into employment that was obtained by either ID theft or fraudulent information.
According to the company of 250 employees, they complied with all laws, rules, and regulations when hiring all their employees. They said that DHS confirmed that they did not break any employment laws.
Sheriff Carter said that it was “unclear” if the manufacturer was at fault in its hiring practices.
Bear Creek Arsenal did not immediately return AmmoLand’s emails for a comment on the raid.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.
In north east Tennessee a few months ago a meat packing plant was raided by ICE and they hauled a bunch of hispanics off to the pokey. Then the wives of these illegal workers began telling their sob stories about how long they had been in the US and they are established here and did not want to be deported. My thought was that ICE needed to come back and get these illegals while they were at it. The owners of the business knew full well what they were doing AND paying these illegals under the table so they didn’t… Read more »
Tried doing some business with Bear Creek a couple of times. If you never have you don’t know what you’re missing, Torture, agony, run around, customer service is only a two week wait. The best is their flat rate shipping, only $10.00, but its applied to each item unless they’re two of a kind.
So yall don’t think they knew and this is weird the the agency busted them cold!?! WOW really? This company knew they were doing wrong. Don’t do business with them and stay with patriots
Mandatory nationwide E-Verify. Blue states think that not using E-Verify is the only useful state’s right.
Seems odd that ICE targeted a business in the firearms industry for their raid. If they need to fill their quotas for an upcoming appropriations hearing I would think they could make PLENTY of arrests at any DNC office or leftist democrat campaign center. . . . . But, maybe, it is just a coincidence, eh?
When I’m checking for snakes, I don’t check inside the freezer; unless I am really after ice cream.
blockheadbiker is correct. Illegals will work for substandard wages. It is not that Americans will not do these jobs, but rather they will not work for 8-9 dollars an hour. I fled CA to move to rural TX last year and for 29 years in CA had worked in the CA wine country as a medical clerk in a county clinic. We saw many patients who were illegal and recently were making $9/hr, with no benefits. The wineries that employed them would get their names in the paper because of their “generosity” in donating to local charities but the profits… Read more »
It’s amazing to me that you can’t find a single video about this on Yoo-hoo or You tube.
The censorship being imposed by big tech may be legal but laws need to change as doing business without using online services is not viable. It’s like electricity or water service. It’s a public commodity! DEMAND MORE FROM CONGRESS! DEMAND MORE FREEDOM, MORE CHOICE, MORE ACCOUNTABILITY!!
As an employer, if one or two illegals speak English well enough to merit no further investigation to verify the identity they are using is an understandable oversight. In BCA’s case however 12% of their work force are illegal aliens!! These are 30 jobs unavailable to ordinary Americans! 30 illegal families drawing American benefits and breaking the law! I have no sympathy for them or BCA for breaking the law! I don’t own nor will I ever own a BCA product! I was looking for a 6.5 barrel when I found this article and it justifies my disinterest in this… Read more »
WOW, so now I know ‼️ I knew it was too good to be true and only time will tell how the parts hold up. I am a huge fan of side chargers and hope BCA will continue as a company as long as there workers are legit. Also, I’ve never had CustomerService problems with them. I don’t know how old/new this company is but I wish them BOL.
Interesting how potus businesses suddenly fired 8-20 year tenured workers, then began using e-verify. Why now?