Agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) raided the Washington state facilities of Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies, Inc., and walked away with thirty-two workers that ICE alleges were illegal immigrants working at the facility. Those workers are now in ICE custody in Tacoma, Washington, and are being processed for deportation.

According to the article reporting the raid, the ICE action was part of its “Worksite Enforcement” initiative. This initiative, which has its own enforcement unit, targets critical infrastructure and sensitive sites. AMT manufactures parts for civilian and military aircraft and is registered with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.

Assuming that the workers are ultimately determined to be illegal and undocumented aliens, AMT might be expecting, sooner rather than later, a visit from the enforcement staff of DDTC. After all, if there were thirty-two foreigners working in a facility that manufactures military aircraft parts, there will certainly be a reasonable suspicion that AMT may have transferred technical data on these military parts if, by no other reason, allowing them to see certain of the military parts. Exports under section 120.17 of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations includes “visual disclosure.”

A major topic of discussion in the deemed export area has been the possible ramifications of having legal and or illegal foreign workers on cleaning crews and in IT departments. There hasn’t been real discussion of illegal foreign workers actually involved on production crews because, I suppose, it was thought that this wasn’t a very likely possibility. Until now.

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