Steel company that smuggled illegal immigrant workers forfeits $6 million to feds
Criminal charges against owner, a former illegal immigrant, were dropped
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Sunday, November 14, 2021
A steel manufacturing company has been ordered to forfeit $6 million — a near-financial death sentence — after admitting it had run a pipeline for “dozens” illegal immigrants from Mexico to come and work for it, undercutting competitors.
All Steel Carports Inc. told the court in a sentencing memo that owner Ignacio Chavez, who came to the U.S illegally himself before winning legal residency in 2009, didn’t consider hiring illegal immigrants to be a big deal.
“In his culture laws are there but few respect them,” the company’s lawyers wrote.
The Biden administration cut him a break, dropping human smuggling and money laundering charges the Trump administration had brought. In a case of ironic timing, the criminal case against Mr. Chavez was terminated just days after the Biden administration announced it was shifting its workplace immigration enforcement away from illegal immigrants and toward “unscrupulous employers.”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/nov/14/steel-company-smuggled-illegal-immigrant-workers-f/