Thread: 3 sub-contractors charged with employing illegal aliens

I.C.E. News Release

July 01, 2010

3 sub-contractors charged with employing illegal aliens in Miami school construction project

MIAMI - A Miami federal grand jury returned an indictment charging three Miami residents with conspiring to induce undocumented aliens to enter and remain in the United States by providing them with employment at a Miami-Dade school construction project, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations in Miami and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools' Office of Inspector General (MD-OIG).

The indictment charges Luis Daniel, 59, the president of Hialeah-based Daniel Builders, Inc.; his wife Marta Duque, 57; and his son, Ariel Daniel, 26, with conspiracy to induce aliens to remain in the United States for commercial advantage and private financial gain.

If convicted, they each face a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison. All three had been previously arrested and released on bond on June 9.

ICE Special Agent in Charge in Miami Anthony V. Mangione said, "Today's indictment should serve as notice to those individuals and businesses that traffic and exploit undocumented immigrants. We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to root out this criminal activity. The message is clear: All employers must play by the rules."

In February 2009, ICE special agents initiated an investigation after learning that undocumented aliens, as well as lawful residents and citizens of the United States, were paid substandard wages at a construction project of an addition to Southside Elementary School, located at 45 S.W. 13th Street in Miami. Daniel Builders, Inc., was the sub-contractor that was awarded a $2.714 million contract at Southside Elementary School in September 2008. The construction workers hired for the project did not receive overtime wages. In addition, social security and income taxes were not deducted from their paychecks.

The indictment charges that between October 2008, and March 13, 2009, the three defendants used their corporation, Daniel Builders, to hire and underpay illegal aliens to increase their profit margin. Thereafter, the defendants created an elaborate scheme to conceal the fact that the work force at Daniel Builders was comprised primarily of undocumented aliens. This scheme included using nominee corporations that acted as labor providers and payroll administrators, in order to insulate Daniel Builders from the responsibility and tax consequences of hiring illegal workers. Among the nominee companies were Miami Metro Services, Inc., and Miami Dade Builders, Inc. This allowed Daniel Builders to enhance its profit margin primarily by paying substandard wages, not paying overtime wages, and not withholding social security or employment taxes.

In March 2009, ICE special agents administratively arrested the 20 individuals who had been observed working at the Southside Elementary construction site. Among those arrested were 14 Mexican nationals, one El Salvadoran national, and five Guatemalan nationals. To date, all but one have been removed from the United States. One worker was arrested on criminal charges for illegally re-entering the United States after deportation as an aggravated felon and has been sentenced to 46 months in prison.

"The exploitation of construction labor for profit by unscrupulous employers can never be condoned," said U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer. "That is as important when business is booming as when it is not."

Miami-Dade County Public Schools Inspector General Chris Mazzella said, "My office will continue to ensure that public monies for School District projects are not misused for private gain through illegal activities."

The investigation was conducted by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations in Miami and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Office of Inspector General.

The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Lorraine Tashman and Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Daniel.

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

ICE is a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities. For more information, visit www.ICE.gov. To report suspicious activity, call 1-866-347-2423.

Last Modified: Friday, July 2, 2010
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1007/100701miami.htm

I am new to this forum so I hope I am posting right. IMO, if every state started going after the employers, 75% of the problem would go away. It makes me angry when I hear the excuse "IA work for less". I live in NC and ten dollars an hour is about what most LEGAL low/middle income workers make. My son deliverys chinesse food because he can't get anything else.


Although I am totally against illegal aliens, we need to remember, they are only taking what our goverment is giving them. They can not get free food, medical assistance, low income housing etc. if we didn't give it to them.

Also, if we can use electric frences and barbwire to secure our prisons, why can't we put this up at the border? I strongly disagree that we can not secure our borders. I would reather pay to put up a fence than to keep paying to support criminals!!

Welcome to ALIPAC Bobby12.
I am glad to see the "sub-contractors getting nailed. I think that too many companie knowlingly hire illegals and do it through a "sub" to claim that they didn't know and avoid legal penalties.
The politicians have got to stop giving it all away to people that are not legally here.
I blame the career politicians in Washington for all of this. We need term limits on Congress to get rid of the homesteaders.

Originally Posted by Bobby12

IMO, if every state started going after the employers, 75% of the problem would go away.

Although I am totally against illegal aliens, we need to remember, they are only taking what our goverment is giving them. [e.a.] They can not get free food, medical assistance, low income housing etc. if we didn't give it to them.

Welcome to ALIPAC. (I have family in Wilmington.)

They are only taking what they're given. Could not agree more.

What happens is that people seek their individual advantage. No one person or company could create the breakdown that we're now witnessing. But when that breakdown becomes widespread, we get an economy which rewards illegal activity.

An illegals-based economy is a false economy. When our young people can't get a job, some of them turn to petty crime and end up in jail. When our adults can't get a job, families disintegrate and communities become unstable. In one sense the greatest cost is an emotional one: People come to believe that their government is no longer working for them.

As has been posted many times by others, universal E-Verify at workplace and welfare office is the most powerful tool for stopping illegal aliens' entry into our country.

Please stay with us.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Welcome to ALIPAC Bobby12 and you are right in the ball park with your comment. Time to shut off the spigot of social benefits to illegals and their anchor babies. Time to start punishing the employers that hire them WHICH OBAMA SAID HE WAS GOING TO DO.

Remember those hundreds of letters going out to employers months ago?Warning them to check their paper work to ensure workers were qualified to work in the USA. So much for the big scare I guess.

This was originally reported by Channel 4 in Miami in a report by Jim DeFede a while back and I am glad to see an update. What this article fails to mention is that several of those illegal employees had criminal records back home which would not have allowed them to be near children. That was reported in the Jim DeFede article. He also exposed a company that brought sheet workers in from Mexico on visas while Americans were unemployed.

Many illegals working in construction make good money, with some of them running their own companies. ICE should be heavily targeting the construction industry so that Americans can start working again.

[i] The Mafia always covered their trail with fake enterprises. All of the ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS realize that many "subcontractors" are organized exclusively to hire ILLEGALS while they persist in seeking out these “subcontractorsâ€

Bobby12 wrote:

Although I am totally against illegal aliens, we need to remember, they are only taking what our goverment is giving them. They can not get free food, medical assistance, low income housing etc. if we didn't give it to them.

I disagree. During the depression, my grandmother refused welfare, even when they shut off her water and the kids could not go to school because she couldn't wash their few clothes. My grandparents came separately from the Ukraine during the Bolshevik revolution and married here, my grandfather being an immigrant lost his job. My grandmother then took her 8 children, four on one side, four on the other, and walked into Shell Oil and cried asking for a job for her husband. He got the job but she had to promise not tell anyone how he got the job. They all lived in the basement and rented out the two upstairs floors to boarders as well.

There is a lot of culpability on the part of the illegals, and they keep their loyalty to their nations. They steal identities and welfare benefits. They drive without licenses. They don't spend their money here but only take and feel they are entitled, while they send billions to their home countries. And they complain, protest and get free legal help when they commit crimes. These treasonous employers have allowed the very worst ingrates to come here and enable them to stay.

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