Following a comprehensive two-year probe into the use of fraudulent identity documents by immigrants, federal authorities have detained 48 workers at a metal casting firm in South Carolina. Additionally, six individuals, including two senior managers at the plant, are now facing state charges, as announced by officials on Thursday.
On Wednesday, a coordinated raid by federal and local law enforcement agencies took place at Burnstein von Seelen Precision Castings located in Abbeville.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers apprehended the workers on charges related to immigration violations. Meanwhile, the plant’s manager and the head of human resources were arrested on allegations of knowingly employing immigrants without legal status in the United States, according to state Attorney General Alan Wilson during a press briefing.
A state grand jury has indicted the company officials along with four others accused of fabricating and distributing counterfeit U.S. and state identification documents, utilizing stolen identities.
“Our aim is to convey that this effort is not targeting individuals merely striving to provide for their families,” Wilson emphasized. “Nor is it against businesses unknowingly employing undocumented immigrants. It’s about dismantling a broader conspiracy within South Carolina involving identity theft and the creation of fake Social Security cards, driver’s licenses, and immigration documents.”
Attempts to reach officials at Burnstein von Seelen for a statement, through both phone and their website, were not immediately successful.
The two company managers were expected to appear at the Richland County Courthouse in Columbia on Thursday to face charges of criminal conspiracy and identity fraud to obtain employment. It was not immediately clear if they had lawyers who could respond to the allegations.
Burnstein von Seelen, founded in 1985, is a metals casting business, using different alloys of copper, brass and bronze to make an array of components, according to its website. It’s located in Abbeville County, population around 25,000, in western South Carolina not far from the Georgia line, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of Columbia.
ICE officials said they were reviewing the immigration status of the 48 workers who were detained, who they said included people who have had previous encounters with ICE and some who were previously ordered deported.
Authorities said the investigation is continuing and more indictments and arrests were possible.
State officials began the probe began in October 2024. At the time it started, local law enforcement officials were frustrated by a lack of federal enforcement efforts against false identifications and identity theft under President Joe Biden’s administration, Wilson said. That changed, he said, when President Donald Trump took office last year, and federal authorities joined the state investigation, he said.
Wednesday’s raid at the plant was not typical of Trump’s mass deportation efforts that have garnered criticism. Immigration raids at businesses have been a relatively small part of the deportation campaign, and state officials played a leading role in the South Carolina investigation.
Officials approached the investigation in ways similar to drug probes, said prosecutor Creighton Waters, pursuing not just the people using the phony documentation but those supplying it.
