Hiring illegal immigrants will cost tree company $2 million
Hiring illegal immigrants will cost tree company $2 million
By Susan Carroll
Updated 09:36 p.m., Friday, May 18, 2012
A tree-trimming company based in Houston reached a $2 million settlement agreement with the Department of Homeland Security that will allow it to avoid criminal prosecution for hiring illegal immigrants, officials announced Friday.
The agreement capped an investigation into ABC Professional Tree Services Inc. that dates to early 2008, when Homeland Security Investigations agents in Alabama were tipped off that the company was hiring illegal immigrants.
The company, which trims trees and vegetation for electric utilities in more than a dozen states, made about $2 million between 2005 and 2011 from the work of illegal immigrants, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
No one from the company's headquarters returned a reporter's phone call on Friday.
The government targeted ABC's workers through traffic stops and audited their employment paperwork, determining in 2009 that about 30 percent of the company's work force was made up of illegal immigrants, according to prosecutors. Officials said the government's investigation showed ABC had, for years, ignored federal law requiring employers to see if the employment eligibility paperwork provided by workers was "genuine."
Immigration agents found that the company "failed to take corrective measures, resulting in the continued employment of the undocumented aliens," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The company has fired hundreds of workers since 2008 and has enrolled in the government's E-verify program, which offers employers access to a government database to verify the employment eligibility of new hires, officials said.
Hiring illegal immigrants will cost tree company $2 million - Houston Chronicle
