MOUNT PLEASANT - Five illegal immigrants were detained Thursday while working on the construction site at Wegmans Retail Service Center in Schuylkill Highridge Business Park.
The incident came just one day after the company announced it would double the size of its local distribution center and create more than 200 jobs.
Acting on a tip, Schuylkill County Sheriff Joseph G. Groody and his deputies, assisted by Schuylkill County detectives and police from Cass and Butler townships, went to the site about 7:30 a.m. and checked workers' personal identifications. They took seven men into custody.
The men were transported to Schuylkill County Courthouse, where two of the men were found to be legal U.S. residents and returned to the site, Groody said. Of the remaining five, Groody said one provided false identification and faces charges of false reports and false identification, filed at the office of Magisterial District Judge Carol A. Pankake, Tremont.
The sheriff said he contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who, with the help of a translator, interviewed all five by telephone and ordered them to be detained in the county prison pending deportation.
According to Groody, the investigation began Tuesday when his office received an anonymous phone call about possible illegal workers at the site.
"That's not uncommon," Groody said of the tip. "We check all of our complaints out and follow up on any information that comes in."
Wegmans officials announced Wednesday that it would invest $65 million at the distribution center, adding 500,000 square feet to its existing 415,000-square-foot facility in Cass Township. The move would create 217 new jobs. C. Alan Walker, secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development, was on hand for the announcement.
Valerie Fox of Wegmans Food Markets Consumer Affairs office said the company issued the following statement regarding the incident: "We are very concerned about what transpired this morning at our Retail Service Center. We immediately contacted the Stellar Group Inc., a Jacksonville, Fla.-based company that designed and is constructing our new facility. We are in the midst of gathering all the facts to better understand the situation."
Valerie Korman, director of marketing and communications with Stellar Group, simply said: "We will not comment at this time."
Frank J. Zukas, president of Schuylkill Economic Development Corp., said he had no further details of the incident and would not comment.
"We're going to reserve any comment until we hear from the company," he said .