Jun. 3, 2003 - Undocumented workers from Mexico stayed at a house owned by developer Paul Bandrowski while they helped build his Hampton Inn hotel in East Aurora, according to construction union officials. 

The Buffalo Building and Construction Trades Council plans a press conference today at the hotel site, at the corner of Olean and Oakwood Roads, to announce the results of their investigation. 

Bandrowski said he and his company were unaware of the workers' status. But union officials said the employers on the job site should have suspected that the crew was in the country illegally. 

"The focus has to be on who is sponsoring them," said Tom Burke, business manager of Carpenters Local 9 in Cheektowaga. "People's perception is that (illegal immigration) isn't happening here, but it's happening everywhere." 

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents arrested nine men in East Aurora on May 23 connected with the hotel project, agency spokeswoman Amy Otten confirmed. Eight of the men were returned to Mexico and one was held because of a criminal record. 

Their employer was a company called Allstate Interiors and a related company, Allstate Drywall, in Washingtonville, N.Y., she said. Company officials couldn't be reached to comment. 

The crew, whose job was hanging drywall, stayed at 253 Main St. in East Aurora for about two weeks while they worked on the hotel, said carpenters' union organizer Michael Barczys. He said he videotaped federal agents leading the men out of the house the day of the arrests. 

Bandrowski, chief executive of Aurora Ventures, said the house was used by a contractor on the hotel project, and that he didn't know that the men were in the country illegally. 

"We would never employ illegal aliens .-- .-- . or contractors who used them if we knew about it," he said. "For the few dollars we would save, it wouldn't make sense." 

Bandrowski said his company has made space available to contractors five or six times for crews building the $7 million hotel. 

Clark Martens, vice president of Aurora Ventures, said contractor Modern Construction in Buffalo sought the living space for the crew from Allstate, a subcontractor. 

"We're disappointed this happened," he said. "We feel Modern did everything within the scope of their responsibility." 

But union officials said the incident shows that enforcement of immigration law is ineffective, when projects can be built by illegal labor through a chain of subcontractors. 

"We need legislation that would nail the contractor and the owner," Burke said. 

While builders on the site claimed ignorance, some workers were highly suspicious of the men, who mostly lacked English and were driven together to and from the job in a van, he said. 

Barczys said Paul Brown, a business agent of the plasterers union, told him about the crew's presence on May 19. The workers arrived about May 12, Barczys was told. 

Companies that look the other way at employment violations are accomplices in the dangerous network that draws desperate workers across the U.S. border, Burke said. Nineteen workers from Latin America died in a locked trailer near San Antonio last month in a smuggling attempt. 

Across upstate New York, the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement bureau deported 1,040 workers in the 12-month period that ended Sept. 31, Otten said. Employers may face a fine or prosecution by the U.S. Attorney's Office. 

-----To see more of The Buffalo News, N.Y., or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.buffalonews.com. 

(c) 2003, The Buffalo News, N.Y. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. HLT,