Officers round up a group of suspected illegal immigrants who are part of the construction crew building the federal courthouse.

  BY TRENTON DANIEL

  Federal agents didn't have to look far Friday to corral about 60 suspected illegal immigrant workers. They were helping to build the towering new federal courthouse in
  downtown Miami.

  About 9 a.m., 80 to 100 uniformed officers with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies surrounded the fenced-off property in a fleet of SUVs, while others with binoculars and radioes watched from a nearby rooftop, construction workers said.

  Two Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswomen, Ana Santiago and Nina Pruneda, said the officers -- some of them affiliated with state agencies -- rounded up the workers, some seen through a thinly covered fence on their knees, their wrists tied behind their backs.

  Others were escorted onto a large, white bus.

  The individuals were charged with being in the country illegally and working without proper authorization.

  Immigrant workers are required to have a green card, work permit or professional visa.

  Federal law requires employers to make sure workers are U.S. citizens or have one of those documents.

  Jacqueline Becerra, special counsel to the U.S. attorney, confirmed that a ''multi-agency effort'' had taken place Friday on the site but declined to give details.

  Asked how illegal immigrants were permitted to work on a federal project, she said: ``That's not going to be a question for us to answer.''

  Others were more outspoken.

  ''I find that very ironic, that illegal aliens could be working on the project,'' said Bob Durfy, a consultant with Airside Construction Services, who was on the site and whose workers were not detained.

  "I'm not the only person who thinks that -- that we could be building a federal building and have illegal people working on a project of this magnitude.''

  'DUCKS IN A ROW'

  Some crew members welcomed the roundup.

  ''I'm happy to see them get all their ducks in a row, get in there, and take care of business,'' said K.C. Miller, a field supervisor with Bostic Steel and a Hollywood resident. "Today they did their jobs right.''

  Miller, like many other union workers, argue that illegal immigrants take jobs away from U.S. citizens.

  He said none of the detainees worked for him and that most were employed by a concrete subcontractor, Capform, which is headquartered in Carrollton, Texas.

  Kurt Hitt, project manager for Capform's South Florida office in Davie, said that the company had 170 workers on the site, but couldn't say how many of them were
  detained. Hitt said the company checks workers' identification when hiring.

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  He said the workers may have submitted false papers to immigration agents or weren't carrying them.

  ''At this stage, it's too early to tell what was uncovered,'' Hitt said. ``There hasn't been enough time for the info to flow yet.''

  Friday's raid may have stemmed from a roundup a few months ago, staffed by fewer than a dozen agents, in which suspected illegal immigrant workers escaped by
  hopping over the fence, workers said.

  The immigration agency and the U.S. attorney's office declined to give details on that raid.

  But this time, workers said, the raid involved far more law enforcement agents.

  ''They came in with ample manpower. Believe me,'' said Gary Lott, an iron worker and Fort Lauderdale resident. ``They got caught with their pants down last time. But this time they were ready.''

  So ready, Lott and his colleagues said, that half a dozen agents stood guard -- with binoculars and radioes -- on top of the federal courthouse cater-corner to the one being built.

  If immigration officers found a worker's papers checked out, they let him go. The hard-hatted worker then walked through an opening in the fence and out onto Fifth
  Street, where the other workers greeted him with raucous applause.

  Then the worker -- flashing a gigantic smile to his colleagues -- raised his arms in a triumphant gesture.