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Libloather FAA licensed 5 arrested at TIMCO 3-24-05 By Taft Wireback, Staff Writer News & Record GREENSBORO -- Five of those arrested on immigration charges at TIMCO two weeks ago had high-level repair licenses from the Federal Aviation Admin istration, which is investigating how they qualified for licensing tests , the agency said Wednesday. FAA administrators are looking into documents used by the five in seeking the right to test for Airframe and Powerplant certification, FAA spokes woman Kathleen Bergen said. The A&P license allows mechanics to work on the more complex parts of a plane. "To our knowledge, they all passed the written, oral and practical tests, " said Bergen, who works at the FAA's Atlanta regional office. It's permissible for foreigners to test for an A&P license as long as the y provide valid proof of training and experience, which can come from th eir home country and is then verified by the US State Department, Berg en said. Dave Latimer, a TIMCO vice president, said those rounded up in the illega l-immigration sweep were skilled mechanics whose only problem was "the l ocation on earth where they were performing their duties and their (righ t) to be here." Latimer said that all their work was double checked by FAA-licensed super visors who weren't illegal immigrants and, often, by additional quality- control inspectors. "All of the work that these individuals did had to be accepted by properl y trained and certified inspection personnel," Latimer said. Federal agents detained 27 workers at TIMCO, 24 of whom are charged with being in the United States illegally. Most came from labor contractors w ho provide TIMCO with temporary workers. But the director of a union representing airlines mechanics suggested it would be hard to properly supervise so many people. He said the situatio n at TIMCO is only the tip of the iceberg for a problem affecting aviati on nationwide. "It is hard to believe management can watch all these illegal immigrants at their work place," said OV Delle-Femine of the Aircraft Mechanics F raternal Association, a union representing 18,000 mechanics. "How many i ndividuals come under the supervisor's purview? Meanwhile, an official with one of TIMCO's labor contractors had a hearin g Wednesday on criminal charges stemming from the arrests and was denied bail. Jorge Ruiz-Alonso, 60, a Venezuelan, is accused of helping an ill egal immigrant get work at TIMCO using fake green and Social Security ca rds. ART, a labor contractor that put four of those charged as illegal immigrants at TIMCO One of Ruiz-Alonso's friends who attended the hearing, Ninel Perez, said he should not be considered an illegal immigrant and that he did not do wrong at TIMCO "He was one of the guys who would say to people, 'You don't have (legal i mmigration) papers. Come back when you have papers,' " she said, meaning he refused to hire illegal immigrants to work at TIMCO Ruiz-Alonso has been in the United States since about 1980, not 1993 as t he government contends, she said. He belongs to a group of pre-1982, ill egal immigrants whose status was clouded by class-action lawsuits settle d recently after dragging on for a decade, Perez said. He was taking steps to apply for citizenship through a settlement in the cases when he was arrested, Perez said. Special Agent D Brent Perley of the US Bureau of Customs and Immigrati on Enforcement testified that the roundup at TIMCO took place after inve stigators heard "from a variety of sources" about illegal immigrants in the aviation-maintenance plant at Piedmont Triad International Airport. ART computer hard drive and several boxes of documents, which a gents are examining, Perley said. He said federal immigration files contain only one transaction with Ruiz- Alonso in the mid-1990s, a petition to visit a year as a farm worker. FAA spokeswoman Bergen said she could not identify the five facing immigr ation charges who hold A&P licenses at TIMCO Latimer declined to identi fy them. So far, only one of the five, Vega, has been charged with a crime linked to the licensing. He is accused of qualifying to take the licensing test by misleading FAA officials in Greensboro about his experience in airpl ane repair. Some of the A&P licensees believed to be illegal immigrants may have perf ormed the sophisticated repair tasks at TIMCO that their license allowed ; But none of them single-handedly did anything that was not inspected in d etail by at least one supervisor, he said.
We will have to CAMP OUT on the steps of the Capitol and the White House because our Wlwcted Representatives are Representing everyone but the Am erican People. They send our sons and daughter's to war, they return dea d and injured. Medical and Psychiatric treament is to expensive for them , but the politicians happily have Emergency Meetings to give away our t ax money by the billions. When will the Congress and the President start being American Citizens an d carry out the will of the American People they are supposed to be repr esenting.
View Replies To: Libloather Dave Latimer, a TIMCO vice president, said those rounded up in the illega l-immigration sweep were skilled mechanics whose only problem was "the l ocation on earth where they were performing their duties and their (righ t) to be here." Dave Latimer: shrewd businessman, global economics expert, human rights a dvocate, and man voted least likely to get a slap on the wrist - if even that - over this incident.
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