Corso's cooperating, 'does right by the law... its employees and customers'

The company raided by federal agents on Tuesday released a statement saying it is fully cooperating with investigators and defending its hiring practices. More than 200 heavily armed agents from U.S. Homeland Security, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and the Border Patrol blitzed the Corso's Flower and Garden Center on U.S. 250 in Perkins Township and a second Corso's location on Bardshar Road in Castalia. Agents arrested 114 employees and removed reams of records from the company's corporate office."Corso's regrets the stress and pain Tuesday's raid had on our employees and their families," the news release sent to the Register late Thursday states. "(We're) particularly troubled by reports of alleged poor treatment of our employees during the arrest process, including an apparent lack of information provided by federal authorities to family members of those arrested. It is our hope that federal authorities will work diligently to ensure minimal disruption to families of our employees as they execute their orders."Spokespeople for the federal agencies haven't provided any information about whether the workers arrested have been able to talk with their children or make arrangements for them. The government hasn't released any records related to the arrests, including the workers' names, what charges each faces and the search warrants used to execute the raids. Investigators also haven't released any lists detailing where, specifically, the employees are being held, or if any have been deported or face imminent deportation.Read: Workers up against itLaw enforcement agencies in Ohio are required by state law to provide such documentation — in nearly all cases — after arrests are made. Federal agencies have exempted themselves from those requirements."Like most agricultural business enterprises in this country, Corso's depends on employees who work on a seasonal basis. We have a long and proud history of hiring employees both on a full time and seasonal basis to deliver the high-quality products that Corso's customers have come to expect," the company's news release states. "Those employees have helped Corso's grow from a small family farming business serving just the local community into the business it is today, serving the highest quality plants, products and services across seven states."Steve Francis, special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations, said possible charges the employees might face include aggravated identity theft and impersonation of U.S. persons. The allegations also involved harboring and hiring of "illegal aliens," he said. One advocate for migrant workers told the Register agents "cherry-pick" the most severe charges, but in past cases involving similar raids the charges most of those arrested will face are much less severe. Francis told the Associated Press the investigation into Corso's began in October 2017 when the U.S. Border Patrol arrested a woman who gave stolen identity documents to job applicants in the country illegally. The document vendor led investigators to Corso's, where they examined documents in its files for irregularities, Francis said. Some Social Security numbers belonged to dead people, he said.Of the 313 employees whose records were examined, 123 were found suspicious and targeted for arrest and criminal charges of identity theft and, in nearly all cases, tax evasion. Francis said the identity theft targeted U.S. citizens who had no idea their information was being used at the Ohio business."We verified that a lot of U.S. persons were obviously unaware of this. It's caused them a lot of hardship," Francis said.Immigration officials have sharply increased audits of companies to verify their employees are authorized to work in the country. There were 2,282 employer audits opened between Oct. 1 and May 4, nearly a 60 percent jump from the 1,360 audits opened between October 2016 and September 2017. Many of those reviews were launched after audits began at 100 7-Eleven franchises in 17 states in January.Read: Citizen arrested in ICE raid freedCorso's "prides itself on being a good corporate citizen and has always made it a priority to operate its business with the utmost integrity, both to its employees and to the community. This means that Corso's does right by the law, just as it does right by its employees and customers," the news release states. "(The company) "demands proper documentation from all those seeking employment at its facilities and also ensures that all employer taxes, are properly paid.""Just as Corso's has strived over the past 77 years to be honest and fair in its dealings with its employees, Corso's expects its employees to be honest with it as well. Corso's strives to comply with U.S. employment laws and therefore asks its employees and prospective employees for honest and legitimate identification and documentation. If mistakes were made or if anyone used false, fraudulent, or otherwise disingenuous identification documents or other documents to secure employment at Corso's, the company was not aware of those things."*The Associated Press contributed to this story. Here is the statement the Register received on Thursday from Corso's:Federal investigators executed a search warrant at Corso's Flower and Garden Center locations in Sandusky and Castalia. In the process of executing that warrant, the investigators arrested more than 100 Corso's employees. Corso's is fully complying with the government's investigation.Corso's regrets the stress and pain Tuesday's raid had on our employees and their families. Corso's is particularly troubled by reports of alleged poor treatment of our employees during the arrest process, including an apparent lack of information provided by federal authorities to family members of those arrested. It is our hope that federal authorities will work diligently to ensure minimal disruption to families of our employees as they execute their orders.Like most agricultural business enterprises in this country, Corso's depends on employees who work on a seasonal basis. We have a long and proud history of hiring employees both on a full time and seasonal basis to deliver the high-quality products that Corso's customers have come to expect. Those employees have helped Corso's grow from a small family farming business serving just the local community into the business it is today, serving the highest quality plants, products, and services across seven states.Corso's prides itself on being a good corporate citizen and has always made it a priority to operate its business with the utmost integrity, both to its employees and to the community. This means that Corso's does right by the law, just as it does right by its employees and customers.Corso's therefore demands proper documentation from all those seeking employment at its facilities and also ensures that all employer taxes, are properly paid.Just as Corso's has strived over the past 77 years to be honest and fair in its dealings with its employees, Corso's expects its employees to be honest with it as well. Corso's strives to comply with U.S. employment laws and therefore asks its employees and prospective employees for honest and legitimate identification and documentation. If mistakes were made or if anyone used false, fraudulent, or otherwise disingenuous identification documents or other documents to secure employment at Corso's, the company was not aware of those things.Corso's looks forward to the resolution of this unfortunate situation and in the interim will continue to focus efforts on serving customers as the investigation proceeds.Investigators conduct a search warrant at Corso's Flower and Garden Center on U.S. 250 in Perkins Township on Tuesday, June 5, 2018.