Undocumented Workers Arrested At Kirtland Base

Officers at Kirtland Air Force Base arrested 20 undocumented workers, but not before they had each spent time on the base.

Kirtland AFB is supposed to be secure and there are many layers of security designed to keep it that way.

On Thursday, however, the base told Action 7 News its officials found 20 people who should never have gotten past the main gates.

Each day, about 25,000 people drive through the security gates.

From that number, about 15,000 are contract workers.

U.S. Air Force Maj. Martin Rothrock talked about the undocumented workers who were found at the base.

“Some of them may have been on base for a number of weeks; some of them, this may have been the first day that they came,” Rothrock explained.

The workers got on base by using false identification.

Rothrock said, “The workers were not working in any kind of restricted area, any kind of controlled area, did not have access to any sensitive information, any sensitive programs.”

All of those arrested were working in construction.

While the base told Action 7 News that Thursday’s incident isn’t a huge security risk, it is of some concern because the gates are the first layer of defense for Kirtland AFB.

KOAT military expert, retired Col. Charlie Thomas, said most regular visitors carry a badge -- but not everyone.

To Rothrock, the arrests are a success.

“A couple of years ago, we probably did not have the systems in place to be able to detect this type of activity,” Rothrock said.

The people who were arrested were taken into federal custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Officials are still investigating whether the construction companies knew they hired undocumented workers before they brought them onto the base.