Deputies take workers into custody at Sonoran Concrete Company in Glendale

GLENDALE, AZ - Sheriff's deputies are cracking down on people using fake identification to get a job. Multiple people were seen handcuffed and taken into custody at a Glendale business by 8 a.m. Thursday.

Jeff Sprong, with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, says a search warrant was served at the Sonoran Concrete Company near 63rd and Orangewood avenues.

Deputies believe more than 20 employees at the construction company were using fake identification "to secure gainful employment." The company employs about 75 people, Sprong said.

The operation began around 4:30 Thursday morning.

Several workers were gathered in the yard and questioned by deputies for at least two hours. 

A group of women, who are related to some of the workers, stood outside the chain link fence. A couple of them pulled out their cell phones and recorded the raid. 

"I think this is a bunch of...bull," Deborah Lopez, of Glendale, said. "(Sheriff Joe Arpaio) could be arresting child molesters and rapists, instead of dealing with this."

Lopez said her husband, and several in-laws, work at Sonoran Concrete Company. She called the raid "unfair" and said legal workers were being harassed.

This is the second raid in recent weeks. MCSO served a search warrant at United Construction Group, also in Glendale, three weeks ago. 

During that raid, 14 people were arrested for allegedly using fake IDs to get their jobs. Two others were taken into custody after admitting they were in the country illegally, Arpaio said. They were turned over to Border Patrol agents.

An MCSO spokesperson said identity theft is a felony crime.