U.S. Border Patrol agents have arrested ten suspected illegal aliens who were working for a government contractor at the Pt. Loma Naval Base in San Diego, home to high-tech nuclear-powered submarines.

Agents arrested the workers – eight Mexicans, one Honduran and one Filipino – at the base on Sunday. According to the Navy, the contractor had issued IDs to the aliens, giving them access to the facility.

Officials from the Immigration and Naturalization Service are now interviewing the aliens.

"Our special agents are questioning them," said Lauren Mack, public affairs officer for the INS San Diego district.

Mack discussed the various things investigators might look for.

"Our eyes will be open to terrorist activity," she said.

According to talk-radio host Roger Hedgecock, who broke the story yesterday on his program, the aliens were "cleaning and sandblasting the hull of a nuclear submarine."

Jill Votaw, public affairs officer for the base, disputed Hedgecock's claim that the aliens were working on a sub.

"They were working on a dry dock chipping paint off of it," she told WND. The report that they were working on a nuclear sub "was a local radio reporter shooting his mouth off," she said.

According to Hedgecock, "five of the illegals had bona fide base clearances."

Said Votaw, "The contractor issued IDs to the individuals. … Base security gave access [to them] based on those IDs."

Votaw refused to disclose the name of the contractor who had issued the IDs to the suspected illegal aliens.

According to Mack, there will be "no further information released until interviews are completed."

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