Illegal Workers at Critical U.S. Facilities Raise Security Risk Questions

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 57 illegal immigrants last month working at risk-sensitive facilities. Authorities fear the workers underscore a security breach that could be exploited by terrorists.

The arrests include:

• March 28: Fourteen Brazilians, including one fugitive, working as janitors at Boston's Logan International Airport.
  
  
• March 22 and two weeks prior: Five Mexicans and one Argentine national doing landscaping, painting and other labor at the Crystal River Power Plant facility in northern Florida.
  
  
• March 21: Nine Mexicans at Pacific Maintenance Co., a Tucson, Arizona, subcontracting company that provides maintenance services to national defense firms like Honeywell, IBM and Texas Instruments.
  
  
• March 18: One Mexican hired to insulate pipes at the nuclear plant at the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo, Iowa.
  
  
• March 8: Twenty-seven immigrants - from Sudan, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Mexico, Chile, Peru and the Philippines - working as airplane mechanics at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina. Six workers were licensed by the FAA, ICE spokesman Dean Boyd said.