Oct 26, 2005 - 06:01:35 CDT
Construction on five of the seven new Wal-Mart sites in North Dakota has resumed after compliance checks resulted in no illegal findings.Marty Heires, spokesman at Wal-Mart corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., said the sites, located in Dickinson, Williston, Minot, Grand Forks and two in Bismarck, halted work for a few hours Monday while compliance checks were conducted.
All resumed Monday afternoon except the Dickinson location and the south Bismarck location at 26th Street and Bismarck Expressway, which includes the construction of a Sam's Club.
Heires said he does not know why the compliance checks are taking longer at those two sites, but he expects construction to resume within the next few days.
"The fact that those checks are taking longer doesn't necessarily mean something illegal is going on," Heires said. "We have no reason to believe something is wrong."
Heires said the checks were prompted by the arrest of eight illegal immigrants from Mexico who had been working on the south Bismarck Wal-Mart construction site.
Six of them were arrested last week during a traffic stop when Bismarck police discovered they were in the United States illegally.
The other two were taken into custody during a separate arrest for having sexual contact with two 13-year-old girls. One of the suspects had his charges dropped when it was discovered he is only 15. The juvenile will begin the deportation process as early as today. The other man, Carlos Martinez, 30, is held in the Burleigh County jail without bond.
Tim Counts, spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement regional office, said the investigation continues on where the other 18 illegal aliens discovered in Bismarck over the past week were working. Officials do know they were working as roofers and laborers. Counts said as of now, nothing indicates they were working on one of the Wal-Mart sites.
Heires said Wal-Mart holds all its general contractors responsible for making sure sub-contractors follow the law.
"Obeying the law is something Wal-Mart takes very seriously," he said. "As far as I know, the contractors are doing everything legally."
He said the checks on the sites in north Bismarck, Williston, Minot and Grand Forks turned up no indication that laws haven't been followed.
"So far, all the checks have come back clear," Heires said. "I believe the checks on the Dickinson and south Bismarck sites will come back clear, as well."
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