Months after one of the largest immigration raids in history, an investigation continues and questions remain.
A total of 114 workers were detained at Corso's gardening center, in Erie County, this past June. Officials called it one of the largest workplace raids in our history.
More than two months later, very little is known about the people who hired the workers detained in the raid.
The folks at Corso's who say they hired them unknowingly. Employees in their main office told News 5 they still can't talk to reporters.
According to the U.S. Attorney's office, while the owners of Corso's face no charges right now, they're still under investigation.
As for the workers? Fifteen of the 114 originally detained have been charged, including four, Tuesday morning. Those who were found working at Corso's after a number of previous deportations were charged with illegal re-entry. Others were charged for use of fraudulent or counterfeit documents to obtain driver's licenses or identification, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.
None of the 15 have been sentenced yet, and we are told others are still being investigated. According to the U.S. Attorney's office "people who are simply here without documents do not necessarily face criminal charges."
The U.S. Attorney's office couldn't answer whether if any Corso's workers, who were found to not have committed a crime, were deported, were still being detained, or were found to be legal and released. So News 5 turned to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement with those three questions.
Their response?
"This is going to be tough to drill down because people either have been removed or are in various stages of the removal process," Khaalid Walls, ICE's Northeast Regional Communications Director, wrote in an email.
News 5 followed up with ICE, but has not heard back.
