Feds arrested illegal immigrants at Atlanta airport

<p>Federal authorities arrested six illegal immigrants Wednesday who had security badges that gave them access to restricted areas at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, including the tarmac.</p><p>U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested the men, all from Mexico and all employed by T.C. Drywall Inc., based in Alpharetta, Ga., as they reported to work at the airport, said agency spokesman Marc Raimondi.</p><p>While immigration officials don't believe the men posed a specific threat, the concern is that undocumented immigrants had obtained badges to a secure area, said Kenneth Smith, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Atlanta.</p><p>"It's the potential threat and the importance of us knowing who has access to secure areas," Smith said. "ICE is aggressively pursing illegal aliens at the places where they work. Areas of critical infrastructure, such as airports, are especially important to national security."</p><p>Officials say the men had been hired recently to install drywall inside the airport's secure area. They will appear before an immigration judge and face deportation to Mexico.</p><p>Federal authorities have been increasingly targeting illegal immigrants at their workplace.</p><p>Since March 2003, immigration agents have conducted operations at more than 196 U.S. airports and audited nearly 6,000 businesses. The effort has identified more than 5,800 unauthorized airport workers and prompted the arrests of 1,100 illegal workers, Raimondi said.</p><p>Immigration officials say they prioritize arresting criminals and hardcore violators, as well as those with access to critical infrastructure. In June, they arrested 55 illegal immigrants who were working at a Dulles International Airport construction site outside Washington.</p><p>Also in June, the Government Accountability Office _ the investigative arm of Congress _ found that workplace enforcement, a central principle of immigration reform legislation under debate in Congress, has significantly declined since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.</p><p>But immigration officials say that in 2006, they have arrested 718 individuals on criminal charges in worksite investigations and apprehended another 3,667 illegal workers on immigration violations, more than a three-fold increase over 2005.</p><p>The Atlanta airport is the world's busiest in terms of passengers. Airport officials didn't immediately return messages from The Associated Press Wednesday afternoon. A message left at T.C. Drywall's voicemail also wasn't immediately returned.</p>