Illegal workers given permits
7 arrested Mexicans free to find jobs after agreeing to aid probe
September 21, 2008
Staff Writer, Honolulu Advertiser
Last week, Floro Mendez-Sanchez, an admitted illegal immigrant from Mexico, was locked away in Honolulu's Federal Detention Center, facing up to six months in prison and deportation for using false identity papers to work as a farm laborer in Waipahu.
This week, Mendez-Sanchez, 24, is out of jail, living at the YMCA and holder of a temporary work permit issued by the federal government that allows him to legally look for a new job.
Mendez-Sanchez and six others still face prison time and deportation, but because they pleaded guilty to immigration crimes and agreed to cooperate in an ongoing federal investigation of the company that employed them, they have temporary liberty and permission to enter Hawai'i's workforce.
It's part of what U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren, who has approved a handful of the plea deals, said in court Wednesday is an "extraordinary" new development for law enforcement agencies targeting companies and middlemen that profit from the employment of illegal aliens in the Islands.
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