Border Fence Firm Snared for Hiring Illegal Workers

[underpants]

A fence-building company in Southern California agrees to pay nearly $5 million in fines for hiring illegal immigrants. Two executives from the company may also serve jail time. The Golden State Fence Company's work includes some of the border fence between San Diego and Mexico.

After an immigration check in 1999 found undocumented workers on its payroll, Golden State promised to clean house. But when followup checks were made in 2004 and 2005, some of those same illegal workers were still on the job. In fact, U-S Attorney Carol Lam says as many as a third of the company's 750 workers may have been in the country illegally.

Golden State Fence built millions of dollars' worth of fencing around homes, offices, and military bases. Its president and one of its Southern California managers will pay fines totaling $300,000. The government is also recommending jail time for Melvin Kay and Michael McLaughlin, probably about six months.

It is exceptionally rare for those who employ illegal immigrants to face any kind of criminal prosecution, let alone jail time. Earlier this week, for example, immigration raids on six meat-packing plants netted almost 1,300 suspected illegal workers. But no charges were leveled against the company that runs the plants: Swift.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6626823

[NoSheep]

1. That's just perfect, now isn't it!

:rofl:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. The irony is delicious. They should pull their passports and ship them to Mexico.

Like the poor people that are being rounded up.

[louis-t]

3. Irony of ironies! n/t

[Ian David]

4. Would it have been legal if they worked on the OTHER side of the fence? n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

5. It was just too easy to predict wasn't it. n/t

[underpants]

8. In every joke there is some truth

Yes we could see this coming from so far away it was like a civil war in Iraq or something.

[bleedingheart]

6. but wait....they were only saving the tax payers money

:sarcasm:

[Eugene]

7. "the case proves that construction companies need a guest-worker program"

In an earlier AP article Cal. Fence Co. Faces Immigration Charges,
the company pledges to clean up its act and urges other companies
to follow suit... now that they've been caught.

They still want the cheap labor though.