Immigrants' arrests put firms in spotlight: Fourteen illegal immigrants were found in a Verizon contractor's van this week in Virginia Beach.

Byline: ChrisFlores And Mike Holtzclaw
May 9--VIRGINIABEACH -- Verizon Communications has been using an army of contractors toaggressively replace its old phone lines with an expensive fiber-optic systemin Hampton Roads and nationwide.
The company's mainVirginia contractor doing this work -- Greensboro, N.C.-based Ivy H. Smith Co.-- was caught by Virginia State Police with 14 illegal immigrants in a vanduring a routine traffic stop Monday in Virginia Beach.
The detainment ofthe illegal workers sheds light on a question frequently facing majorcorporations today: Are businesses responsible for the hiring practices oftheir contractors? Verizon isn't the only party that will need to answer thisquestion for federal immigration investigators.
Ivy H. Smith,which has an office in Norfolk, is one of 28 subsidiaries of publicly tradedDycom Industries. Virginia state regulators have been dealing with complaintsfrom cable and gas companies about Ivy H. Smith and its contractors digging upcable lines for more than two years.
As problems mountedwith Ivy H. Smith and other Verizon contractors, Fairfax County tried to helpits residents. One of the promises that Verizon made was to ensure "eachwork crew would have one individual that can effectively communicate inEnglish."
Mike Netherland isassistant special agent-in-charge for the U.S. Immigration and CustomsEnforcement, or ICE, office in Norfolk. He said the illegal immigrants were alladult males, 12 from Mexico and two from El Salvador. They were riding in a vanowned by Ivy H. Smith.
Netherland saidICE had begun "actively investigating the employer" but said hecouldn't comment further on that matter. A woman who answered the phone at IvyH. Smith said the company had no comment.
Verizon said itregularly reviewed the performance of its contractors and had terminated somein the past. Verizon is reviewing this incident with Ivy H. Smith.
A state policespokesman said officers pulled the van over for a registration violation onInterstate 264 and found the 14 men in the vehicle.
Upon receiving thecall from state police, Netherland said, ICE determined the immigration statusof the men and then took them into custody to begin the process of deportation.He said the detention and removal section of ICE was now handling the matter,waiting to see whether the men will accept deportation or fight it.
"Individualscan stipulate to the order of removal, or they can challenge their removal andappear before an immigration judge," Netherland said. "These men arebeing detained pending those proceedings."
Based on previousICE cases, Verizon is unlikely to face any repercussions unless Ivy H. Smithsays it was specifically asked to hire illegal workers.
"It is thecontractor who is liable for the work force because they're vouching to thecompany that is hiring them that the work force is authorized," said PatRiley, an ICE spokeswoman in Washington.
There's a highburden to prove that a company knew its contractors were using illegal workers,but it happens occasionally. ICE reached a settlement with Wal-Mart afterdocuments surfaced showing the company knowingly hired cleaning contractorswith illegal workers.
The question ofVerizon's supervision over its Virginia contractors was raised two years ago byCox Communications in Northern Virginia. Cox was more concerned that Ivy H.Smith contractors were cutting cable lines while digging and repairing themwith tape.
A Cox executivesaid at the time that Ivy H. Smith officials said Verizon had 1,500 contractorsdoing this work and that they were paid for each foot of cable buried. Coxcomplained that this gave the contractors an incentive to try to move quicklywithout repairing lines.
The problems havecontinued into Hampton Roads and were bad at first in Virginia Beach. ButVerizon and Ivy H. Smith have improved quite a bit since the Northern Virginiaproblems, said Thom Prevette, the Cox spokesman for the region. "They'veadhered to, and abided by, a lot of our joint agreements we've workedout," Prevette said.
Under fire fromWall Street for the cost of the mammoth undertaking, Verizon has said in recentyears that it's working to reduce the costs of installing the lines.
The work inHampton Roads started in Virginia Beach about two years ago. Then Verizon begandigging in Newport News, where it started selling television service two weeksago.
Ivy H. Smith'sparent company, Florida-based Dycom, specializes in doing contract work withtelecommunications companies. Verizon's building boom has become the key tomaking Dycom the company it is today.
For the yearending in July 2005, Dycom received 25 percent of its revenue from Verizon --by far its largest customer. The previous year -- before Verizon startedbeefing up its fiber optics -- Dycom received only 3.7 percent of its revenuefrom Verizon.