SLED releases arrest warrants after 5 detained in Bluffton ICE operation
The five men arrested Thursday in Bluffton during an operation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement were allegedly using others’ Social Security numbers for work and lacked legal residency in the U.S., according to state police.
Arrest warrants from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division identified the men as Francisco Ramirez Santiago, 43, of Bluffton; Pablo Ramirez Santiago, 46, of Bluffton; Arelio Saul Galicia De Leon, 53, of Hardeeville; Erick Alfons Clavel Gonzalez, 28, of Hardeeville; and Jose Moreno Romero, 56, of Bluffton.
Each man faces a single charge of “identity fraud to obtain employment or avoid detection by law enforcement,” which is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
They were arrested in a joint operation between ICE and SLED Thursday morning at Southern Marsh Nursery on May River Road, which continued onto Hilton Head Island later in the day. Law enforcement drones were seen flying overhead as agents carried out their work in an outdoor storage area commonly used by landscapers behind the Bluffton business.
Charging documents accuse the “foreign nationals,” who worked for Bluffton landscaping company O’Hara Outdoors, of fraudulently using Social Security numbers for employment. Three were accused of using numbers belonging to other residents while two allegedly collected wages under fabricated Social Security numbers.
Under the fraudulent Social Security numbers, according to the documents, the men each worked over 500 hours and earned between $10,021.50 and $14,594.14 in taxable wages.
Reached by phone Friday afternoon, a representative for O’Hara Outdoors declined to answer questions about their employees’ charges.
At the request of SLED, five deputies from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office were present to help serve warrants Thursday at the Bluffton nursery, Sheriff P.J. Tanner told reporters on Friday.
SLED was one of the first agencies in the state to contract with ICE under the agency’s revamped 287(g) program, which allows non-federal officers to be trained to enforce federal immigration law.
The sheriff’s office inked its own 287(g) deal in late July, but its two deputies joining the task force had not yet started the several weeks of required training. That training would authorize them to question residents’ immigration status and make immigration-related arrests, among other responsibilities typically delegated to federal agents.
All five men arrested Thursday remained in custody at the Beaufort County Detention Center as of 5 p.m. Friday. Each was placed under an ICE hold, which gives immigration agents up to 48 hours to transfer them into federal custody.
The five suspects “will be taken into ICE custody after whatever criminal charges they have are adjudicated,” Lindsay Williams, an ICE spokesperson for the Carolinas, wrote in an email.
Representatives for SLED had not responded to questions sent Thursday afternoon about the operation and arrests.
This story was originally published September 26, 2025 at 5:48 PM.
