Judge orders immediate deportation of dance group member

Latino Fox News
November 04, 2011

Chicago – An Ohio judge ordered the immediate deportation of a young Hispanic detained 14 days ago along with members of his Aztec dance group as they were driving across several states to put on a show.

Judge D. Williams Evans Jr. ordered the immediate deportation of Joel Almeida Gonzalez, who had a previous deportation order and will be sent back to Mexico next Tuesday.

Gonzalez is one of five undocumented dancers who were driving from New York to Joliet, Illinois, to take part in an Aztec dance ceremony on Oct. 21.

Joel was traveling with his brother Erick Almeida Gonzalez and Alberto Vera Ramirez, Carlos Tirado Carmona and Byron Tzoc Guarchaj when they were stopped in Tiffin, Ohio.

All of the immigrants are from Mexico with the exception of Guarchaj, who is a Guatemalan citizen.

When their vehicle was pulled over, police found that the travelers had no documents and consequently handed them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The men were held in Seneca County Jail until Thursday.

Debra J. Pelto, spokeswoman for the detainees, told Efe that Tirado Carmona, freed on $5,000 bail, and Erick Almeida Gonzalez on $2,500 bail, were ordered to leave the country voluntarily by Dec. 18.

Vera Ramirez, who was let out on $1,500 bail, and Guarchaj, on $5,000 bail, face another appearance in court.

"The intention was to release them all, including the two who have been given a date for voluntarily leaving the country, so they at least have a chance to put their affairs in order in New York and say goodbye to their families," Pelto said.

The arrest of the Hispanics caused surprise in New York and Chicago where the Aztec dancers are known in artistic circles.

In New York last week volunteers collected donations at several points around the city and managed to come up with $3,000 toward paying the bail bonds. In Chicago groups formed to help the detainees' families.

Roberto Ferreyra of the Nahui Ollin dance group in Chicago told Efe that a change in immigration laws is vital in order to prevent incidents like this.

"There should be a way that people who contribute to this country can work," Ferreyra said. "It's a binational problem - there's free transit for trade and there ought to be free transit as well for those who work."

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/11/04/judge-orders-immediate-deportation-dance-group-member/#ixzz1cxF5p2nH

Survey crew workers in country illegally, face deportation

By Michael Jones, HT Staff Writer
Gaylord Herald Times
August 16, 2011

CHESTER TWP. —Two members of a survey crew with Precision Geophysical Inc., an Ohio-based seismic recording services company, are facing deportation to Mexico after deputies from the Otsego County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) determined Sunday the pair were in the country illegally.

On Tuesday, OCSD Deputy Tim Hogan said his department was dispatched Sunday around 12:40 p.m. to an M-32 residence in Chester Township for a trespassing complaint involving four members of the survey crew.

Hogan said the company had been providing contracted service work in the area.

After making contact with the four survey crew members, deputies determined two of the men, Eligio Franco-Cruz, 50, and Danian Franco-Loaeza, 28, were both from Mexico and in the country illegally.

Hogan said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from Sault Ste. Marie were contacted and took the two subjects into custody for deportation. The two men were lodged in the Otsego County Jail while awaiting ICE officers to arrive in Gaylord.

ICE is currently investigating the company regarding employee’s status of the other members working with Precision Geophysical in the area.

According to Hogan, when ICE officers attempted to make contact Monday with the rest of the survey crew, three of the company’s employees had failed to show up for work on that day.

Hogan indicated arrest warrants for trespassing of the two survey workers not facing deportation were being sought.

petoskeynews.com/gaylord/news/ght-illegal-workers-081711,0,7954214.story
petoskeynews.com

Enforcement and deportation costs skyrocket

Dispatch investigation: Deportation Nation (Part 3/3)
By Stephanie Czekalinski
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
December 28, 2010

It would cost each U.S. taxpayer about $500 to deport all 11.1 million immigrants estimated to be living here without permission.

On average, each deportation cost taxpayers more than $6,000 in 2010, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement budget numbers.

The amount Americans spend annually to detain and deport immigrants increased by more than 100 percent since 2005, to $2.55 billion in 2010. During the same period, the number of people deported more than doubled, to more than 390,000.

The Department of Homeland Security says the investment to step up enforcement of federal immigration laws has been worth it.

The number of illegal immigrants living in the United States has dropped from 12 million in March 2007 to 11.1 million in March 2009, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, D.C.

Homeland Security officials say the decrease is because of increased deportations and more funding for agents, investigators and prosecutors. But others say the national economic downturn has slowed the flow of illegal immigration.

Immigrant-rights activists question whether the mass deportations are money well spent. Most illegal immigrants are here to build productive lives and contribute to the economy, said Ruben Castilla Herrera of the Ohio Action Circle, a statewide grass-roots immigration-rights coalition.

Studies disagree about whether illegal immigrants are a net benefit to or drain on the U.S. economy.

According to the conservative research group the Heritage Foundation, $100billion in annual welfare spending goes to households headed by immigrants with high-school degrees or less. If illegal immigrants were given a path to citizenship, the welfare system would be flooded with new recipients, the Heritage Foundation says.

On the other side, the Immigration Policy Center, a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C., says legalizing the 11.1 million undocumented immigrants would increase the country's gross domestic product by $1.5trillion over 10 years.

No one disagrees that it costs money to deport someone. In some cases, taxpayers pay to repeatedly deport the same individuals, who keep sneaking back into the U.S.

Stepped-up prosecution

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency responsible for enforcing immigration laws, has been referring re-entry cases to prosecutors in the hope that the prospect of prison time will send illegal immigrants a message: Don't come back.

Prosecuting and imprisoning illegal immigrants takes up much of the federal court system's time.

Almost half the cases prosecuted in federal courts during the first 11months of 2010 were immigration-related, according to Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, which gathers and analyzes data from public agencies.

Federal courts heard more cases that involved illegally entering the country, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail for the first offense, than for any other crime, including drug offenses.

In February, Judge Sam Sparks of U.S. District Court in Austin, Texas, questioned prosecutors about the value of prosecuting people with no "significant criminal history" for immigration-law violations. His docket, like many others in federal courts across the country, was awash in immigration-related cases.

The cost of prosecuting immigrants with no criminal history other than re-entering the country, rather than deporting them again, "is simply mind-boggling," Sparks wrote."The U.S. Attorney's policy of prosecuting all aliens presents a cost to the American taxpayer at this time that is neither meritorious nor reasonable."

The increased prosecutions have not put a burden on prosecutors in southern Ohio, said Vipal J. Patel, district criminal chief for the U.S. attorney's office.

Nationwide, the number of criminal immigration convictions in federal courts in August was up more than 60 percent over the same period five years ago, according to TRAC. The No. 1 charge was sneaking back into the country after being deported.

Immigrants with no criminal history face a maximum of two years in prison if convicted of re-entry. Those who have committed significant crimes can face a maximum of 20 years.

In November, about 11 percent of people serving time in federal prisons had been convicted of immigration-law violations, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

It costs about $24,000 annually to hold someone in federal prison, according to a budget released by the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 2009. The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction says it cost about the same to keep someone for a year in Ohio prisons in 2010.

The lure of family

Ten-year-old Jamie Aristigue stood in front of about 150 people on the Statehouse lawn one afternoon in July and cried.

Her father, Fernando Aristigue, had "been taken away from us and is in jail," she said.

Jamie, her sister, Frida, 5, and her mother, Magali Cruz, 29, were participating in a faith-based rally that pushed for immigration reform.

ICE agents had detained Fernando Aristigue at the family's Westerville apartment in June.

He has been deported six times since 2005. He has returned each time.

Instead of simply deporting Aristigue a seventh time, federal prosecutors charged him with illegally re-entering the country, a felony.

Aristigue, 36, had never been convicted of breaking immigration law or any other law, according to court documents.

While taxpayers are footing the bill for deportations and imprisonment, illegal immigrants and their families, including their U.S. citizen children, also pay a price.

In November, the Aristigues' apartment was vacant. A clerk in a nearby Latino grocery remembered the family.

"It was a very sad case," said the clerk, who asked not to be identified. "There are a lot of very sad cases."

It's easy to understand why Aristigue risked federal prosecution, he said. Since Aristigue's arrest, his wife and daughters have returned to Mexico.

But there will be no reunion anytime soon. If a U.S. judge gives Aristigue the maximum sentence, it will be two years before he can join his family.

Cost beyond dollars

About 10 years ago, W. Tom Large was involved in a vehicle crash with an illegal immigrant. Both are still paying the price.

"It was like being in an explosion," said Large, 65, a lifelong Ohio resident.

Luis Valente De La Paz-Flores was driving north on Sawmill Parkway in a Chevrolet Astro van when he ran a red light and struck Large's Ford Expedition, which was heading west on Powell Road, Large said.

Valente, who prosecutors said was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash, pleaded guilty to vehicular assault and was deported to Mexico in 2001 after spending nine months in jail.

Large struggled but was able to keep his special-event business afloat while he recuperated. His SUV was totaled in the crash, and he battled his insurance company to cover his medical bills, he said.

But Large hadn't heard the last of Valente.

"He's back?" Large said after a Dispatch reporter told him that Valente had been arrested this summer in the University District.

"I figured he was going to be back," Large said.

Federal immigration authorities found Valente, now 33, in August and charged him with re-entering the country after being deported, a felony punishable by up to a $250,000 fine and 20 years in prison.

Valente is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, awaiting trial. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

Although Large said he harbors no animosity toward Valente, he's reminded of him often.

Before the accident, Large, who has a black belt in karate, lived a life full of physical activity. Today, his joints ache and stiffen when he sits, and he walks with a limp.

"I've had nothing but pain since," he said.

Comprehensive fix

Police, activists on both sides, immigration lawyers and citizens of the United States and countries around the world have been begging legislators for years to reform the broken, contradictory and complex system of laws that govern immigration to the United States.

Attempts by some states to define how local law-enforcement agencies and ICE work together have become flashpoints in the national brawl over illegal immigration.

In July, a federal judge blocked some of the most controversial sections of an immigration law in Arizona - considered among the strictest in the nation - which required police to ask suspected illegal immigrants for their immigration papers in the course of enforcing other laws.

Legislators in Ohio are closely watching what's going on in Arizona.

Rep. Courtney Eric Combs, a Republican from Hamilton, said he plans to approach other members of the legislature about passing a law that would incorporate the elements of Arizona's law that were deemed constitutional.

If the Ohio legislature won't act, he said, there are plans to put the issue on the statewide ballot.

In Ohio and across the country, local and state law-enforcement officers routinely arrest illegal immigrants for various offenses, then turn them over to immigration authorities for deportation.

Since 2002, almost 2,000 people have been transferred from the Franklin County jail to ICE custody.

Those opposed to illegal immigration say it's necessary to root out dangerous criminals, and to find and remove immigrants living illegally in the United States. Immigrants-rights advocates say the practice is outside the jurisdiction of local law enforcement, begets racial profiling and breeds distrust of police within ethnic communities.

What's needed is federal immigration reform, said David Leopold, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

"We need a comprehensive fix, and Congress needs to do it," he said.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/12/28/enforcement-and-deportation-costs-skyrocket.html?sid=101

Facing deportation, mother has hard choice: Should she leave her children behind?

Robert L. Smith
The Plain Dealer
November 27, 2010

For the Maldonado children of Painesville, life as they know it is about to end and probably end badly.

The two oldest, Juan and Ivan, were young children when their parents brought them across the border. They retain only hazy recollections of Mexico.

The four youngest have never left the neighborhood. Now the sun is setting on their familiar world.

Federal agents arrested and deported their dad, Diego, nearly three weeks ago. Their mom, Manuela, must report to immigration authorities in downtown Cleveland by Dec. 14, with or without her American-born children.

After a decade working and living in the shadows, the Maldonados were found out. Now a mother faces a desperate choice, one expected to become more common in Northeast Ohio: Should she uproot her family whole, or leave children behind?

"We have nothing in Mexico," Manuela Maldonado said through an interpreter, her face a mask of pain and confusion.

Those in her working-poor neighborhood realize that the ejection of a well-liked family is but a beginning. Without immigration law reform, Lake County's largely illegal Mexican community faces a harrowing future.

Immigration enforcement is accelerating. And there is little public sympathy for a family of "illegals," even when half that family is American.

That reality lent an anxious edge to a recent display of solidarity, when dozens of neighbors and friends gathered around the Maldonado family's modest home on a rainy afternoon to show support.

"You'll probably see us again with another family in a couple weeks," said Veronica Dahlberg, an advocate for the Hispanic community. "Everybody's scared."

In Lake County, home to the region's largest concentration of illegal immigrants, legal and cultural forces are heading toward a painful clash.

The county's $90-million nursery industry is staffed largely by Mexican immigrants, many of whom arrived over the last 30 years from Leon, a major city in central Mexico. Some came with work visas. Many did not.

Dahlberg estimates Lake and Ashtabula counties are home to 8,000 to 9,000 Mexican immigrants, and maybe 75 percent of the community is undocumented, lacking legal status.

After years here, the community is deeply rooted. Many Mexican immigrants belong to so-called "mixed-status families," a blend of citizens and non-citizens, which complicates deportations and heightens the moral dilemma.

For decades, the presence of illegal immigrants was largely ignored in a county enriched by their labor. Nursery work is hard, dirty and seasonal, and Mexicans are simply the latest immigrant group willing to do it.

"For the most part, they're very good workers," said Mark Gilson, owner of Gilson Gardens in Perry and the past president of the Nursery Growers of Lake County Ohio. "I think they would make very good citizens."

His trade group supports comprehensive immigration reform, which might offer a path to citizenship for families like the Maldonados.

But the anti-immigrant sentiment pervasive nationally percolates in Northeast Ohio. Citizens groups have sprung up to lobby for stricter enforcement of existing immigration laws and to oppose anything that smacks of amnesty.

Julie Aldrich, a leader of a group that calls itself the Grassroots Rally Team, said Diego and Manuela knew the risk when they crossed the border.

"I do feel bad for the children, but it's the parents who should feel guilty, not us," she said. "We have to have laws and we need to enforce those laws."

That is becoming easier to do. Regional immigration authorities, once barely noticeable, are now flush with manpower and resources. The Department of Homeland Security has steadily reinforced its Border Patrol stations in Sandusky and in Erie, Pa.

The Border Patrol, in turn, alerted local cops and sheriff's deputies that it stands ready to take custody of any illegal immigrants they might encounter, and Hispanics now complain of being pulled over for "driving while brown."

At the Nov. 16 vigil outside the Maldonado home, a girl held a sign reading, "Traffic Stops = Deportation. Stop Tearing Apart Families."

It was bad luck, not a stop sign, that outed the Maldonados.

When immigration agents swept through Painesville in May of 2007, targeting people who had ignored court orders or been accused of crimes, they arrested any suspected illegal immigrants they stumbled upon, some 40 in all. Diego Maldonado was one of those "collateral arrests."

He and Manuela had come across the border in 1997, seeking to escape the poverty and the hopelessness of Leon, Manuela said. They started in California but headed to Painesville after Diego's brother assured them they could find work.

He was right. Both Diego and Manuela were working, he in a factory and she at a nursery, when Diego opened the door to a federal agent looking for someone else, a fateful decision. The couple had been in the country nine years and nine months. Had they reached the 10-year threshold, both would have been entitled to apply for legal status.

The family tried to fight deportation but by last year their savings and their legal options were exhausted. The couple failed to follow an immigration court's order to leave the country, said Kaahlid Walls, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, so the government acted.

On Nov. 9, ICE agents were waiting outside when Diego left for work. Ivan Maldonado, 15, witnessed his father's arrest through the front window and raced crying to his mother, who kept the children inside and called Dahlberg. She reached a lawyer who convinced ICE to allow the rest of the family to turn themselves in.

Dad was flown to San Antonio, Texas, and on Nov. 16 was sent walking across the border into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, beginning his grim trek back to Leon.

Manuela, 40, faces life-changing decisions. Her youngest, Kevin, is three. The oldest, Juan, 18, cares for a baby boy he had with his American girlfriend. The family has no home in Mexico. Most of the children speak only English.

Should some be left behind, she wonders, for the better chance America offers? Who would raise them?

Should she take them all back to Mexico -- and to what?

It's a dilemma that pricks the conscience of a community.

At a community meeting Tuesday night, Rev. Roderick Coffee heard Manuela Maldonado share her story. He's pastor of a Concord congregation and president of the Lake County NAACP, which is newly interested in the immigration issue.

"I would think that we would be more prepared to handle this in a humanistic way," he said. "America has experience at immigration. We should be getting better."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: rsmith@plaind.com, 216-999-4024

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/11/facing_deportation_mother_has.html

Reading grad's deportation postponed

By Mark Curnutte
Enquirer (Cincinnati)
November 23, 2010

The potential deportation of 2010 Reading High School graduate Bernard Pastor has been delayed for at least several weeks.

Meghan Dubyak, a spokeswoman in the Washington office of Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told the Enquirer on Tuesday that Brown received notice that Department of Homeland Security officials – of which Immigration of Customs Enforcement is a part – will hold off on any deportation efforts for several weeks.

ICE confirmed the delay Tuesday night.

A Brown staff member drove from the senator’s Cincinnati office to the Morrow County Jail in Mount Gilead, where Pastor is being held by ICE, to get his signature on a document known as a Request for Assistance, said Firooz Namei, Pastor’s Cincinnati attorney.

The Brown staff member spoke to Pastor and told him of the widespread support for him in Greater Cincinnati, Namei said, and Pastor was moved to tears.

“This is wonderful news,” Namei said.

Pastor, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who has lived in the U.S. with his family since age 3, was arrested last week following a minor traffic accident in Springdale.

When police discovered he was an illegal immigrant, he was turned over to federal agents from ICE. The agents transferred him Monday from the Butler County Jail to another holding site in northern Ohio. The next step in any potential deportation would be to send him to a federal prison camp in Oakdale, La.

The developments capped a day of frenzied activity to keep Pastor in the United States.

Representatives of Brown and U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus, D-West Price Hill, contacted Namei’s office Monday and again early Tuesday, the attorney said. Driehaus told The Enquirer on Tuesday afternoon he wrote to two high-ranking officials in the Detroit office of the Department of Homeland Security, chief counsel Aaron Todd and regional director Rebecca Aducci.

“Deporting Bernard Pastor would not serve in the interests of the citizens of the United States, whose tax dollars would be better spent pursuing removals that fit more clearly into the priorities outlined by (ICE),” Driehaus wrote.

Driehaus opened the letter by saying he was writing on behalf of his constituent in the 1st Congressional District of Ohio.

Meanwhile, friends, families and teachers from the Reading High School community are involved.

Spanish teacher Andy Callahan said that Pastor’s supporters are calling
congressional representatives and ICE officials and asking that Pastor be allowed to remain in the U.S. and his case reopened.

A Facebook page called “Free Bernard Pastor” has been created. More than 450 people have clicked “like” on the page and dozens have posted notes of support.

A petition called “Help Us Keep Bernard at Home” was established at Change.org. More than 1,300 people had signed it by Tuesday evening. About 20 former Reading High classmates met Thursday night at the Deer Park home of Naturel Holloway, 19, who graduated with Pastor. National organizers with dreamactivist.org and United We Dream joined them. “We’re mad,” Holloway said. “He never did anything to anyone except be a great friend.” Asked for her reaction when she learned of his possible deportation, she said, “I just cried.”

Several dozen plan to run the Thanksgiving Day 10K race downtown. They will wear matching T-shirts that read “Free Bernard” on the front, with his photo, and this slogan on the back: “Not a leaf falls that God does not know about.”

If Pastor remains incarcerated in Morrow County, several students said they plan to visit him.

In the meantime, friends said they would continue to e-mail and call Brown's and Driehaus’ offices to show their support for Pastor.

Federal officials have painted grim prospects for Pastor staying in the U.S. ICE regional spokesman Khaalid Walls said Monday that a federal immigration judge signed a final order for Pastor’s deportation and rejected his asylum appeal.

Pastor came to the U.S. through Mexico with his parents and an older brother and sister. His father worked for Guatemala’s agriculture ministry and, according to Namei, ran afoul of the military and Catholic Church because of his evangelical efforts as a Pentecostal minister. Pastor’s family is in hiding. The family of Bernard Pastor’s uncle received asylum with the same claim, Namei said.

Advocates for immigration reform argue that Pastor’s case is far too typical of the young people who would be helped if Congress would pass the DREAM Act, legislation first introduced in 2001. It would allow a six-year period for young, undocumented immigrants to earn a permanent visa and work toward U.S. citizenship.

In the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Pastor’s case – first reported on Cincinnati.Com at midday Monday – has re-energized efforts to push for passage of the DREAM Act, said Tony Stieritz, director of the archdiocese’s Catholic Social Action office.

Signatures and letters will be delivered to Brown and Voinovich and other federal lawmakers, Stieritz said.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101123/NEWS01/311230026/1055/NEWS/Deportation-case-on-hold

Former IFCO Managers Plead Guilty to Illegal Alien Conspiracy

By Chaille Brindley
MaterialsHandling.Net
4/4/2010

Two former IFCO employees recently pleaded guilty in federal court to criminal charges in connection with immigration raids conducted in 2006. William Hoskins, 33, and Tomas Soto Castillo, 56, both of Cincinnati, Ohio pled guilty to a felony conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens and to encourage and induce illegal aliens to remain in the United States. Soto Castillo also pled guilty to a felony conspiracy to knowingly hire illegal aliens.

Hoskins and Soto Castillo were former New Market Development managers for the Pallet Management Division of IFCO Systems North America. They pled guilty before Judge Lawrence Kahn in the U.S. District Court for Northern New York. Due to the time limitations before going to press, IFCO could not be reached for comment about the latest guilty pleas by former employees. Hoskins faces a potential sentence of up to ten years in prison while Soto Castillo could be imprisoned for up to five years. Both defendants face the possibility of a fine of up to $250,000.

On January 23, 2009, Hoskins, Soto Castillo and five IFCO executives were indicted by a grand jury in the Northern District of New York for immigration, tax and social security related felony offenses. Five IFCO executives are challenging the criminal charges against them. The trial was set for late April 2010. However, the defendants have requested a change of venue, which could delay the trial.

The five defendants challenging the charges against them are Haskell “Buddy” Ross of Lakeland, Fla. (Senior Vice President – Human Resources); Christopher Tiesman of Spring, Texas (Senior Vice President – Finance and Accounting); Charles Davidson of San Antonio, Texas (Vice President of New Market Development, formerly Director of New Market Development); Kenneth Gines Jr. of Spring, Texas (Controller – Pallet Services); and Wendy Mudra of Tampa, Fla. (Human Resources Manager).

The prosecution stems from the government’s investigation of illegal immigration and employment-related practices at IFCO’s pallet management service facilities. The investigation began following a tip to ICE in February 2005, that illegal alien laborers at the Albany IFCO plant were observed ripping up their W-2 forms.

On April 19, 2006, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, in concert with other federal and state authorities, conducted work site enforcement raids at over 40 IFCO pallet plants in 26 states. This action resulted in the detention of 1,181 illegal aliens working at those plants.

The United States Attorney’s Office has previously prosecuted several IFCO managers for criminal offenses associated with the employment of illegal alien workers at IFCO pallet plants. Including the pleas announced today, eleven IFCO managers have entered guilty pleas related to hiring illegals and other violation of U.S. immigration, tax and workplace law.

In December 2008, the United States government reached a record corporate settlement with IFCO, pursuant to which the company agreed to pay $20.7 million dollars in civil forfeitures and penalties over four years. The settlement amount included $2.6 million dollars in back pay and penalties relating to IFCO’s overtime violations with respect to 1,700 of its pallet workers. IFCO also agreed to pay $18.1 million in civil forfeitures that will be available to support future law enforcement activities. IFCO has been fully compliant with the settlement agreement to date.

IFCO’s agreement in essence shielded the company from prosecution and has allowed it to stay in business as long as the company agrees to follow U.S. laws as well as the letter of the agreement. Depending on what comes out at trial, IFCO or its senior executives could still face legal challenges. If new information emerges that indicate illegal actions were conducted outside the scope of the corporate settlement, the Department of Justice could always re-open its investigation into the company as a whole or senior management.

The IFCO raids alarmed the pallet industry back in 2006 because one of its largest companies became the poster child for aggressive enforcement of U.S. immigration and labor laws. Government analysis of IFCO’s payroll information suggests that as many as 6,000 illegal aliens worked at IFCO pallet plants from 2003 to April 2006. Since then, IFCO has worked to become compliant, according to the Department of Justice in its recent statement. Other pallet companies have worked to verify the legal work status of their employees as well.

http://www.materialshandling.net/articledatabase/view.asp?articleID=3088

Chicken processor fined for illegal workers

By Dan Horn
Enquirer Media (Cincinatti, OH)
February 12, 2010

Koch Foods Co. paid a $536,000 fine this week for violations discovered during an immigration raid almost three years ago at the company's Fairfield poultry processing plant.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials described the fine as a significant penalty that is justified by the myriad problems the agency found when it examined the company's hiring policies. Police and federal agents arrested 161 illegal immigrants during the August 2007 raid.

"This is one of the more significant fines for a case like this," said ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls. "It speaks to the level of violations we found."

The violations included a failure to complete required paperwork and to do a thorough check of job applicants' identification documents.

Koch officials said they cooperated with federal investigators and revamped their hiring practices to include an electronic system known as E-Verify, which checks prospective employees against a federal immigration database.

"We have been very proactive to make sure we are state-of-the-art in how we do hiring," said Mark Kaminsky, Koch's chief financial officer. "We feel very good about our policies and procedures. We feel we're cutting edge."

Kaminsky said the company, which employs about 500 people in Fairfield, has added training for managers on how to complete the paperwork required by immigration officials and has set up new procedures to avoid a repeat of the violations uncovered in 2007.

The company also has made changes on the management team that runs the Fairfield facility, although Kaminsky would not discuss how many people, if any, lost their jobs.

"We don't take any of this lightly," Kaminsky said. "We take it very seriously."

Brian Moskowitz, the agent in charge of ICE in Ohio and Michigan, said the crackdown on Koch Foods is part of a broader immigration enforcement effort that targets employers suspected of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

"Employers have a responsibility to hire men and women who are authorized to work in the United States," Moskowitz said in a statement Friday. "Fines are an important component of ensuring their compliance."

Federal prosecutors said last year they would not seek criminal charges against company officials based on the 2007 raid. Walls said Friday that has not changed and criminal charges are not expected.

The morning raid at Koch's plant followed a two-year investigation into the hiring practices of the Chicago-based company. At the time, immigration officials described the company as "an egregious violator" of U.S. immigration laws, which meant the company was suspected of knowingly hiring undocumented workers.

The raid was the largest in Greater Cincinnati in years and was among the largest in the country in 2007.

All of the arrested workers faced deportation proceedings and about 20 also were charged with forgery, tampering with records and identity fraud.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100212/NEWS01/2130327/Chicken+processor+fined+for+illegal+workers%22%3E

No charges in 2007 Koch Foods raid

By Dan Horn
The Cincinnati Inquirer
dhorn@enquirer.com

No managers or company officials at Koch Foods Co. will be prosecuted as a result of an immigration raid two years ago at the company’s poultry processing plant in Fairfield.

Federal prosecutors and a company lawyer confirmed this week that the criminal investigation into Koch and its managers is over and that no one would face charges.

The decision comes two years after federal and local law enforcement agencies raided Koch’s processing plant and vowed to pursue charges against anyone at Koch who turned a blind eye to immigration laws when they hired the 161 illegal immigrants arrested during the raid.

After the raid in August 2007, law enforcement officials said the illegal workers used fraudulent identification documents to get jobs at Koch and that the large number of arrests raised questions about whether the company bent or broke the rules.

Butler County Sheriff Rick Jones, an outspoken advocate for tougher immigration enforcement, warned businesses after the raid that “you can’t come here and commit a crime and go unscathed.”

The investigation, however, ran into trouble when immigration officials tried to prove anyone with Koch knowingly broke the law.

“Koch foods did every procedure that was required at the time,” said Martin Pinales, one of the company’s lawyers. “We followed the law.”

He said company officials struggled to find a balance between federal laws that seemed to give employers conflicting instructions about handling job applications. On one hand, he said, the law required the company to vigilantly check documents, but on the other it forbade employers from singling out immigrants for greater scrutiny.

“When documents are presented and they, on the surface, look correct, we have to accept them,” Pinales said. “We can’t discriminate.”

Pinales said hiring rules have since been tightened nationwide and the company now uses a government-approved electronic system to verify identification papers.

Federal prosecutors would not discuss the investigation, but they confirmed it was over.

“We have declined to prosecute the case,” said Fred Alverson, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Greg Lockhart.

The morning raid at Koch’s plant was part of a two-year investigation into the hiring practices of the Chicago-based company. Immigration officials described the company as “an egregious violator” of U.S. immigration laws, which meant the company was suspected of knowingly hiring undocumented workers.

The raid was the largest in Greater Cincinnati in years and was among the largest in the country in 2007.

All of the arrested workers faced deportation proceedings and about 20 also were charged with forgery, tampering with records and identity fraud. Many were deported within weeks of their arrest, but immigration officials were not immediately available Thursday to discuss the status of all of the arrested workers.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090827/NEWS01/308270043/No+charges+in+2007+raid+at+Koch+Foods

Homebuilder Calls Immigration Raids "Federal Abuse"

Local 12 News (Cincinnati)
May 9, 2009

Well-known local homebuilder Henry Fischer has some choice words for the federal justice system. Fisher is so upset about immigration raids involving his company three years ago, he's collaborated on a book about it.

Fischer, his attorney and the book's author appeared Thursday afternoon at the Mercantile Library in downtown Cincinnati. They call the 2006 search warrants executed on his job sites and offices "federal abuse".

Dozens of illegal immigrants working on the sites were deported and three subcontractors plead guilty to immigration charges. Indictments against four Fischer employees were eventually dropped.

Henry Fischer: "The only reason for doing this is to bring more to the light of day, the problems in our federal justice system. We have serious problems in our federal justice system that need to be analyzed and the people in power aren't inclined to change it."

Federal prosecutors never named Fischer homes as a target of their investigation. However, they raided Fischer job sites multiple times.

All of the people who pleaded guilty in the case were either sub-contractors who worked for Fischer or workers employed by the sub-contractors. None of them was a direct Fischer employee.

http://www.local12.com/news/local/story/Homebuilder-Calls-Immigration-Raids-Federal-Abuse/9DjccuXk90KY96lXl-6_Ig.cspx

ICE official confirms raid in Vinton, Toledo

ICE official confirms raid in Vinton, Toledo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
November 18, 2008

Immigration agents are investigating two Chinese restaurants in eastern Iowa.

Tim Counts, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says restaurants in Vinton and Toledo were being investigated on Tuesday.

Both restaurants are called the Peony Chinese Restaurant.

Counts did not say what prompted the investigation. Counts says no arrests had been made by early Tuesday afternoon.

Counts said ICE had summoned Iowa State Patrol officers to the restaurant for security, but they were not directly involved in the enforcement operation. The raid, he said, is much smaller than the May 12 operation at Agriprocessors Inc. that led to the arrest of 389 illegal immigrant workers.

A spokeswoman for the Iowa State Patrol said she did not yet have details about the action. Vinton’s police chief was out of the office.

Peony Chinese Restaurant is located in downtown Vinton and serves Mandarin and Cantonese style Chinese food, according to online ads.

Vinton, an eastern Iowa town of 5,100, is the county seat of Benton County.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081118/NEWS03/81118020/-1/NEWS04

ICE stepping up Ohio deportations

ICE stepping up Ohio deportations
Published: Sept. 10, 2008
United Press International

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they are stepping up the number of deportations from Ohio where 3,300 have been sent home this year.

That's up from 900 for all of 2007, the Columbus Dispatch reported Wednesday. It said immigration officials have upped the number of agents in the state from eight to 40 as officials continue a crackdown on mainly Hispanic illegal immigrants in the Midwestern state.

The Dispatch said it was allowed to accompany immigration agents as they loaded shackled deportees onto a plane at an unnamed Ohio airport. The newspaper said there were 99 detainees put onto an unmarked, white U.S. Marshal's jet, 95 of whom were men and most whom looked younger than 35.

Before being put on the plane, the marshals checked the detainees' mouths, hair and hands for hidden objects as immigration agents and deputies loaded catered meals and the immigrants' belongings onto the plane.

Such deportations can cost as much as $6,000 per person, immigration spokesman Greg Palmore told the Dispatch.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/10/ICE_stepping_up_Ohio_deportations/UPI-57191221072234/

Faith leaders to hold prayer vigil on immigration

Faith leaders to hold prayer vigil on immigration
By Staff report
Tuesday, September 09, 2008

COLUMBUS — More than 200 leaders and members of diverse faith traditions will gather on the South Lawn of the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday, Sept. 10, to pray for immigrant families who have been torn apart by immigration raids across the Midwest.

They will call on the government to stop these raids and deportations, and urge policy makers to enact humane, just immigration reform.

The recent increase in immigration raids, throughout the region, including one in Cleveland on July 23 of this year that arrested 68 people, is leaving whole communities devastated and creating fear and pain for immigrant families, leaders of the vigil said in a release.

Leaders will come together to pray for healing and reconciliation, to highlight God's call to "welcome the stranger among us," and to call for just immigration policies that honor the humanity of all people, the release said.

Among those the vigil will be the Rev. Josh Colon of Princeton Pike Church of God in Hamilton, according to the release.

The vigil is sponsored by Faith Communities Uniting for Peace and The Ohio Council of Churches.

http://www.journal-news.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/09/09/hjn091008immigrantvigil.html

Backlash in the heartland

Backlash in the heartland
Tougher enforcement turns up heat on illegal immigrants
Sunday, September 7, 2008 1:32 AM
By Jill Riepenhoff and Stephanie Czekalinski
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Maria, who lives here illegally, works double shifts at a restaurant, earning $3.50 an hour before taxes.

The young woman climbed into a van with a man she had paid $6,500 to take her out of El Salvador and smuggle her into the United States.

Destination? Columbus, where her brothers settled a few years ago to work.

Maria's journey began just after immigration reform imploded in Congress.

She crossed undetected in July 2007 and quickly learned that her new way of life is full of contradictions.

She and others working here illegally can pay into Social Security but can't collect benefits if they are disabled, retire or die.

They can collect workers' compensation benefits if they are injured on the job but can't legally work.

They can play the lottery but can't collect jackpots.

They can open a bank account but can't take out a home mortgage without valid identification.

They can buy a car and register it but can't have a driver's license.

"I knew it would be that way before I came," Maria said. "But one comes with the hope that she can find a way to enter the world of opportunities."

http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/09/07/divide_backlash.html?sid=101