Immigration Agents Seize 11 Workers at Gleneagles CC

by C&RB Staff (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
May 2008
 

Federal agents swooped through the gates of Gleneagles Country Club in Delray Beach, Fla., earlier this month and slapped handcuffs on 11 undocumented Haitians, some of them longtime employees, who were then tagged for deportation.
 
Immigration authorities, tipped to one worker's illegal status, checked files of other workers before launching the raid, which took between 30 and 45 minutes, at the club. The men allegedly had ignored a judge's order to leave the country, officials said.
 
The workers maintained the golf course and common areas, Gleneagles Country Club General Manager Kraig Spina said in an article in the Palm Beach Post. Some of the 11 men had worked there as long as seven years, he added, but the club was not aware that any of the workers were there illegally, and it cooperated with the investigation.
 
"I was approached about a month ago on one individual,” Spina explained. “All of our documentation was correct and accurate, based on what our local government agent had said. We worked with [federal authorities] throughout the whole process, and they orchestrated [the raid] with us.”

In February, the state of Florida filed a lawsuit against a Boca Raton company and affiliated Miami employment service companies for luring 50 Filipino citizens to work at a country club in the county. Promised jobs weren’t delivered and as many as 28 people were forced by the companies to live in one home, authorities said in the lawsuit.