Federal Immigration & Customs Enforcement agents arrested 19 people, including eight workers at a Downtown construction site, suspected of being illegally in the United States in warrant-search raids yesterday at two separate locations.

Eleven people were arrested at a Halawa warehouse at about 6 a.m., and eight others were taken into custody at a mid-morning raid at the 36-story Pinnacle Ho-nolulu condominium construction site at South Beretania and Bishop streets, said Wayne Wills, special agent in charge of the Immigration & Customs Enforcement office of investigation in Hawai'i.

Wills said his office is conferring with the U.S. attorney's office and would not comment further on the raids. The 19 people in custody are being held at the Federal Detention Center.

Pinnacle Honolulu officials could not be reached for comment late yesterday.

Pacific Resource Partnership, an organization of contractors and the 7,600-member Hawaii Carpenters Union, issued a statement praising the arrests. "The aggressive law enforcement crackdown is highly unusual in the local construction industry given the multiethnic composition of the local workforce," the partnership said in its release.

Partnership executive director Kyle Chock said, "Companies that knowingly break the law by exploiting workers and creating slave conditions are simply unacceptable."

Maile Hirota, former chairwoman of the Hawai'i chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, estimated last year that there were more than 10,000 illegal immigrants living in Hawai'i.

Cade Watanabe, a community organizer for Local 5, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, said last year his union counts undocumented workers among its ranks.

The issue of how to deal with undocumented workers has been hotly debated on the Mainland this year, but has failed to gain as much attention in Hawai'i.

In June, a comprehensive immigration reform bill failed in the U.S. Congress after months of painstaking negotiations and weeks of debate. Lawmakers were unable to agree on how to treat the 12 million illegal immigrants now in the country.

Immigration will be a key issue in the 2008 presidential election.

The raid in Downtown Ho-nolulu yesterday took place at an upscale condominium project. The Pinnacle at 1199 Bishop St. has sold more than 80 percent of its 50 fee-simple condominium units, which range in price from $885,000 to over $3 million.

The project is being developed by Caribou Industries Inc., which owns Kaua'i's Hotel Coral Reef Resort.

The public can report immigration violators by calling 866-DHS-2-ICE.

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