54 in custody in major immigrant forgery sting at Abbeville County, SC industry

For years a major Abbeville County industry called Burnstein Von Seelen Precision Casting was known for turning out quality metal parts made out of copper, brass and nickel.

But two managers at the plant allegedly produced something else: They “facilitated” the use of phony identification cards for company workers, state Attorney General Alan Wilson and other state, local and federal ICE law enforcement agents announced at a Thursday morning press conference in Columbia.

The managers and four others involved in the alleged illegal document scheme have been indicted, officials said.

And 48 workers on Burnstein’s first shift have been detained by ICE for immigration violations.

The detained workers came from Mexico and Guatemala, officials said.

The workers were taken into custody by ICE during a raid on the plant Wednesday morning pursuant to a search warrant.

The South Carolina branch of the ACLU criticized the action and asked anyone with information contact the group.

“South Carolinians are fearful today following a workplace raid in Abbeville. While the politicians trumpeting this raid have given the public very few details, we know that 48 workers are now facing immigration charges,” said Jace Woodrum, ACLU-SC executive director.

“In a country that has made it difficult for people to pursue legal citizenship, under a government that has repeatedly lied about the relationship between immigration and public safety — we ask the public to consider early claims by ICE and its allies with a grain of salt,” Woodrum said.

Officials at Burnstein did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The plant has been in operation for more than 20 years and is a substantial employer in Abbeville County, which borders Georgia. The county is about 50 miles south of Greenville and miles from any interstate. The company’s web site advertises jobs that lead to careers with benefits such as 401K retirement fund, paid holidays and health insurance.

The investigation, still ongoing, began two years ago and was given the code name “Ghost Story.” It had two components — first, the state investigation concerning the fake documents and, second, the federal ICE actions detentions of foreign nationals in the U.S. in violation of immigration laws.

In announcing six state grand jury indictments and the detention of 48 workers , Wilson said evidence in the case alleges that two managers at Burnstein, Christopher Ramey and Sandy Lynn Willis, violated their legal obligations to verify the legitimacy of identification papers before hiring workers, thus facilitating the use of forged identity documents and stolen identities by undocumented immigrants at the company.

“They were knowingly hiring illegal aliens,” Wilson said.

Officials declined to give many details about evidence in the case, but Wilson did say “undercover operations” helped gather information. Undercover operations is a broad phrase that could mean anything from wiretaps to undercover agents.

“What we were able to determine from undercover operations as well as the evidence is that people at this company ... were knowingly hiring people they knew were illegal and that had fake documents because on multiple occasions they had when the document were inadequate, they would send them away, and they would come back with different names,” said Wilson.

Other major defendants in the case are alleged sellers of forged state drivers’ licenses, Social Security cards or other sham identification, documents that allowed immigrants to stay in this country illegally, Wilson said.

The fake identity cards included the use of the dates of birth and Social Security number of actual U.S. citizens, officials said.

The phony documents cases will be overseen by the state grand jury, which operates out of the attorney general’s office and is led by Creighton Waters, head of the state grand jury criminal section.

Speaking at the press conference, Waters stressed that the forgery operation is major focus of the investigation.

“This investigation is not about targeting hard-working people who are just trying to put food on the table,” Waters said. “We cannot ignore identity theft. We cannot ignore blatant violations of the law .... We can’t have readily-available false identifications, stealing the identity of real Americans.”

Stolen and fake identity documents are “a national security issue,” Waters said. “That is what we focussed on — where are they getting these fake IDs?”

But the ACLU’s Woodrum said, “The bottom line is that these employees showed up for work, and many of them will not be able to return home to their families.”

The investigation was prompted by complaints from local law enforcement and businesses in the area about ”undocumented” immigrants, Waters said. Investigators worked the case as they would a drug case — from the people with the fake IDs up to the people who were providing the phony papers, he said.

Elaborating, Wilson said, “We didn’t go after them because they were hiring Latino people. We went after them because of an undercover operation, they were knowingly engaging in illicit criminal conduct .... We are not targeting communities because of what you look like or where you work. We are targeting specific conduct.”

Wilson said with the election of Donald Trump as president in late 2024, federal authorities taking part in the investigation began to devote more resources to immigration violations. “That was not a priority with the Biden administration.”

Wilson and Waters said the investigation came together just recently and law enforcement had to get sufficient forces in place to strike Wednesday.

“The investigation was driven by federal and state law enforcement timelines, not by anything else,” Wilson said.

Besides ICE and the state grand jury, other participants in the investigation are the State Law Enforcement Division, Homeland Security Investigations, area sheriff’s departments and the 8th Circuit Solicitor’s office headed by Solicitor David Stumbo.

The two Burnstein managers indicted are:

• Sandy Lynn Willis. She is charged with criminal conspiracy, identify fraud to obtain employment and forgery.
• Christopher Douglas Ramey. Charged with criminal conspiracy, identity fraud to obtain employment and forgery.
• Four alleged phony document makers were charged with forgery and identity fraud to obtain employement.
• They are: Jose Luis Aguilar Mejia, Lazaro Hernandez Hernandez (a/k/a “Diego Hernandez”), Xavier Martinez Adorno and Zenon Rojas-Cabrera.

Wilson responded to the ACLU, saying in part, “I don’t really care if the ACLU is upset with me. Let me be clear: if you’re here illegally or knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, we’re coming for you.”

This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 12:45 PM with the headline "54 in custody in major immigrant forgery sting at Abbeville County, SC industry."