Archives of Employer Sanctions 2009

June 2012

• December 2009 — In 2007, immigration agents arrested 25 illegal immigrants working at a Pilgrim’s Pride plant, a major chicken processor, in Mount Pleasant, Texas, and in 2008, 338 illegal immigrants were arrested at five Pilgrim’s Pride plants in five states. In December 2009, federal authorities dropped charges against the company in exchange for the company’s agreement to pay the federal government $4.5 million over three years and to adopt more stringent hiring practices. (New York Times, December 31, 2009)
• December 2009 — An Arizona company, Eurofresh Inc., has agreed to pay $937,460 in back wages to 587 workers to settle a U.S. Labor Department investigation into its hiring practices which included firing 527 U.S. workers and replacing them with foreign agricultural workers. The company also underpaid workers, did not provide required housing and made illegal paycheck deductions, according to the Labor Department. (Arizona Republic, December 4, 2009)
• November 2009 — A settlement was announced in a case against Columbia Farms in Greenville, South Carolina that resulted from an October 2008 worksite raid that resulted in the detention of more than 300 illegal alien workers. About 21 Latino illegal alien supervisors were tried and convicted and served time in jail before being deported. The parent company, House of Raeford Farms accepted responsibility for employing illegal alien workers, agreed to pay a $1.5 million dollar fine and participate in the E-Verify employee document verification system in exchange for dropping charges against two managers and instead putting them on probation. (Charlotte Observer, November 4, 2009.)
• October 2009 — Robert Lane Camp, the owner of a landscape business in Houston, pled guilty to employing and harboring an illegal alien. The illegal alien, Leonardo Quintero, was earlier convicted of the shooting death of a Houston police officer when he was stopped while driving a truck of the landscape business. As a result of the plea, the prosecution recommended a prison sentence of three months, three months of home confinement and five years of probation rather than the five years of prison and a $250,000 fine that he faced. (Houston Chronicle, October 5, 2009.)
• October 2009 — Mary Gurin, the owner of a temporary employment agency in suburban Chicago, was sentenced to three years in federal prison for knowingly aiding the employment of illegal aliens at secure areas of O’Hare International Airport. Her assistant, Norinye Benitez, was sentence to one year and one day of prison. (The Chicago Tribune, October 1, 2009)
• September 2009 — In February, 2009 — shortly after the inauguration — ICE conducted a raid in Seattle at Yamato Engine Specialists Ltd. and detained 28 illegal alien workers. The new administration, caught by surprise, ordered the workers released and given work permits while the investigation of the company continued. In September, the case was apparently closed with a fine of $100,000 against the employer. Since then, the illegal alien workers have begun to be deported if they did not choose to accept voluntary departure. (AP story in the New York Times, December 5, 2009)
• September 2009 — Makhan Singh pled guilty to knowingly hiring undocumented workers at his Indian restaurant in Corning, New York. Singh faces up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both. (The Star-Gazette, September 23, 2009)
• August 2009 — Shirin Dhanani Makalai and her brother Shafique Dhanani, pled guilty to knowingly hiring undocumented workers at their company , Yamato Engine Specialists, in Bellingham, Washington. Under the plea agreement, the two were sentenced to one year of probation. The company was fined $100,000. (Associated Press, September 21, 2009) 
• August 2009 — Daryl Leise, the owner of a chain of thrift stores, American Clothing Co., in Omaha, Nebraska pled guilty to reckless disregard in the hiring of illegal alien workers at his company. He will serve three years of probation and pay a penalty of $50,000. (Omaha World-Herald, August 19, 2009)
• August 2009 — A chicken processing company, George’s Inc., agreed to a $450,000 fine and other sanctions as a result of a May 2007 immigration raid at its plant in Missouri that found 136 illegal alien workers. The company also operates poultry facilities in Arkansas and Virginia. Seven of the company’s employees were indicted. (Courthouse News Service, August 18, 2009)
• August 2009 — Shirin Dhanani Makalai and her brother Shafique Dhanani, pled guilty to knowingly hiring undocumented workers at their company , Yamato Engine Specialists, in Bellingham, Washington. Under the plea agreement, the two most likely face probation. The company faces a maximum fine of $500,000. (Associated Press, August 19, 2009)
• August 2009 — A Houston doughnut company, Shipley Do-Nut Flour and Supply Co. was ordered to pay a criminal fine of $250,000 and forfeit $1.3 million to federal immigration officials for conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants. Three former and current Shipley plant managers also pleaded guilty to hiring or continuing to hire illegal immigrants. They have not yet been sentenced. (Dallas Morning News, August 7, 2009)
• July 2009 — Beverly Linan, the owner of Rodriguez Construction Co. in Birmingham, AL, pled guilty to harboring and employing illegal aliens. She was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to forfeit more than $75,000 and eleven firearms. (AP, July 29, 2009)
• June 2009 — Robert Kramer, the chief operating officer of Car Care a Philadelphia-area car wash company and two others pled guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government, harbor illegal aliens and commit identity theft in employing at least 50 illegal immigrants. The other two employees are Nicholas Sama and Timothy Gibson. Car Care was also ordered to pay a fine of $100,000 and to forfeit $500,000 to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The three defendants each face a maximum possible sentence of 5 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and 3 years of supervised release. (AP in the York Daily Record, June 1, 2009 and ICE website)
• February 2009—Douglas Jaques, president of Janco Composites, a manufacturer of fiberglass tubing in Indiana, pled guilty to knowing that one of his employees helped illegal workers obtain work using false information and that he had been notified that the employees’ Social Security numbers did not match the SSA database. He agreed to a fine of $30,000 and one year of probation. The company agreed to pay a fine of $210,000. The company had been found to be employing 36 illegal alien workers in a raid in March 2007. (Chicago Tribune, February 3, 2009)