news-leader.com
Ozarks News
11:00 PM, Jan. 21, 2012

Southwest Missouri cases involving the hiring of illegal immigrants have made headlines periodically during the past 10 years.

December 2011

The former owner of Branson-based Santa Cruz Management, John Voisine, pleads guilty to visa fraud in a scheme that sent Filipino workers authorized to work in Branson to Myrtle Beach, S.C., instead.

January 2011

It is announced that federal authorities are investigating whether illegal immigrants were employed during construction of a hangar for the National Guard in Springfield.

A representative of HTH Corp., the subcontractor investigated, says all of the workers were checked using E-Verify.

February 2010

Russell D. Taylor, the owner of Bolivar-based Taylor-Made Roofing and Taylor-Made Contractors, is sentenced to five years probation after pleading guilty to hiring a dozen illegal immigrants.

Taylor also was ordered to forfeit $185,363 in related profits and pay a fine of $36,000.

Hilario Perez-Cereceres, a Springfield-based subcontractor working with Taylor, was sentenced to three years probation for harboring four illegal immigrants at his home and employing a total of 12 at his business, Perez Roofing.

March 2009

A manager at a west Springfield convenience store, Navin Chandra Patel, is arrested and charged with trafficking counterfeit items and being in the country illegally.

May 2007

Federal agents arrest 136 illegal immigrants working at the George's Inc. poultry processing plant in Butterfield. Several other employees involved in the hiring process are prosecuted for falsifying various documents. The company eventually pays a $450,000 administrative fine.

September 2006

Miao De Zhang and Ai Hui Chen, former owners of the Great Wall restaurant in Springfield, are charged with hiring six illegal immigrants from Mexico and China and harboring them in a rented duplex.

The pair eventually were sentenced to two years of probation, including one year of home detention, and fined $5,000 each.

March 2006

A Central High School senior, Tobias Zuniga, was found to be in the country illegally. After being released on bond Zuniga was able to graduate before being forced out of the country.

February 2006

Operators of Midwest Hotel Management Corp, a business that provided housekeeping personnel and other workers in the Branson and Springfield area, are indicted for fraudulently obtaining work visas for 300 workers.

Later in February, a group of 56 illegal immigrants are arrested during a raid on a job site in Carthage.

April 2004

Two Korean women suspected of being in the country illegally are arrested during a prostitution sting at the former Smile Sauna on North Glenstone Avenue outside Springfield city limits.

November 2003

A former owner of Hinode Japanese Steak House, Dae Joon Song, was indicted in federal court after accusations of harboring two undocumented workers.

October 2003

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detain 27 people at or around the Sunshine Terrace Apartments in Springfield for allegedly being in the United States illegally.

Incidents of illegal immigrants in the past decade | Springfield News-Leader | News-Leader.com