Up to 30 illegal workers arrested in an immigration raid Thursday at Universal Industrial Sales Inc.'s plant in Lindon may face criminal charges for identity theft, forgery and document fraud, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on Friday.

ICE referred the 30 cases on Friday to the Utah County Attorney's Office for possible criminal prosecution.

At the same time, an unspecified number of the 57 arrested may also face federal criminal charges of illegally re-entering the United States after being deported. If convicted, the illegal workers could face between two and 20 years in prison.

"At the present time, I've not yet authorized any criminal prosecutions of the workers, because for the most part, many of them don't have criminal histories. But that could change if we find workers with severe criminal histories, outstanding warrants, or pose a threat to the community," said U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman.

"Yes, they are here illegally. Yes, emotions are running high. But you also have to appreciate the humanitarian and compassionate need of these individuals. Many have children born here or have family here who are naturalized citizens. If they have pending criminal charges against them, their ability to come back and work legally may be limited," Tolman said.

Some immigration attorneys in Utah see the ICE raid at Universal as part of a growing national trend of increased enforcement against employers who hire undocumented workers.

"President Bush has doubled the number of investigative agents and dedicated $40 million toward worksite enforcement," said Roger Tsai, an immigration attorney with Parsons Behle & Latimer in Salt Lake City. "The national sentiment is that employers are looking the other way and providing jobs as the magnet for illegal immigration. The reality is that most employers are trying to comply with immigration laws, but don't have the tools to detect document fraud and immigration status."

"ICE in many ways is essentially trying to scare employers into compliance with the limited enforcement resources that they have. This raid will send ripples of angst amongst employers, and that's unfortunate," Tsai said.

Universal, a maker of guard rails, bridge rails and sign structures, was charged Thursday with 10 criminal counts of harboring illegal immigrants "for commercial advantage" between January 2003 and December 2006. The maximum penalty for each count is $500,000 in fines or twice the amount of any pecuniary gain from hiring illegal workers, whichever is greater. The company is scheduled to enter a plea to the criminal charges on Feb. 26.

The company's human resources director, Alejandro "Alex" Urrutia-Garcia was charged with two counts of encouraging or inducing illegal workers to stay in the United States. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each count. The 39-year-old Provo man was arrested Thursday morning. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, and was conditionally released from ICE custody later that day because officials didn't consider him a flight risk or a danger to the community. A four-day trial on his case is scheduled to start April 14.

Close to a dozen immigration-related measures to deal with the problem of illegal immigration in Utah are being debated during the state Legislature. And until Congress fixes this problem, Tolman said he hopes the ICE raid at Universal will send "clear messages that illegal immigrants should avoid Utah."

"Utah happens to be an interior state that has quite a bit of illegal immigration, so you may see more enforcement actions in this state than others. With all the building, landscaping and food services industries in Utah, illegals do provide a significant work force in many of those businesses," he said. "The illegal workers who come to U.S. are making a dash for the interior of the country. They know the border states are where they can be deported and prosecuted. And Utah has prime highway corridors for illegals coming through Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona."

Tolman hopes Thursday's sweep drives home the point that "businesses that attempt to gain an economic or competitive edge by hiring illegals at cheaper cost will be the ones at risk."

"The effort needs to go toward those facilitating their entry, and less emphasis on the illegal workers. It's like drug dealing. You have to get to the manufacturers and distributors of illegal drugs. If you prosecute the drug users, it's a revolving door," he said.

Ultimately, the message is "put in place procedures to determine if your workers are legal, and make sure the employees who do the hiring are doing that, and you have nothing to worry about," Tolman said.

But Tolman stressed that Thursday's sweep was handled a little more humanely than the last ICE action in Utah against the Swift meat processing plant in Hyrum in December 2006.

He said he notified Hispanic and Latino leaders here as soon as the indictments were unsealed, and right before and during the ICE raid. "They appreciated the heads-up and were able to mobilize resources to help families of the arrested workers cope with it," he said. "I also worked with ICE to make sure we have hot lines available for family members of the workers."

Also, no sole breadwinners or caregivers were jailed in the Universal raid, and at least one individual with medical conditions was conditionally released. But he will be required to appear before a federal immigration judge at a later date.

During Thursday's enforcement action, the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage & Hour Division also ensured the illegal workers were paid wages for work they had done at the company prior to their arrest.

In the Hyrum raid, more than 150 illegal immigrants were arrested and at least 18 were criminally charged with violating federal identity fraud statutes and immigration violations, according to Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah. That ICE raid was part of a national sweep of six Swift plants that led to the arrests of nearly 1,300 illegal workers nationwide.