NORCROSS, Ga. — A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman says agents from its Homeland Security Investigations division are working with the IRS to execute a search warrant at multiple sites in the Atlanta area.
ICE spokesman Lindsay Williams told 11Alive's Elwyn Lopez that the searches were taking place on Thursday at six Super Mercado Jalisco locations.
Williams stressed that this was not directly related to immigration and that their agency was there to support an IRS criminal investigation. Homeland Security Investigations agents " arrested "three unlawfully present aliens that had illegally reentered the U.S. after their previous removal."
One Mexican national and two Guatemalan nationals were taken into custody at two of the grocery store locations, one in Duluth and two at one of the Norcross stores.
ICE said the investigation involved stores in multiple cities: Lawrenceville, Duluth, Marietta, Roswell, and Norcross. Two of the stores are said to be at Norcross addresses.
The IRS hasn't commented on why they initiated the searches.
In a statement posted to the supermarket chain's Facebook page, it said that search warrants "failed to indicate exactly the reason for the search" and claimed that the officers on location weren't forthcoming with details.
"As a prominent employer in the Atlanta area, and as a major contributor to our local Hispanic communities, Super Mercado Jalisco is disappointed in the heavy-handed tactics of the federal government," CEO Jose Luis Covarrubias said. "Super Mercado Jalisco maintains the strictest standards on compliance and completion of all of the necessary paperwork required by the federal government."
This is a developing story
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