Almost $1-million in fines for harboring undocumented immigrants

By: Tara Thomas

Posted: Sep 25, 2018 03:05 PM CDT
Updated: Sep 25, 2018 03:26 PM CDT


MERIDIAN, Miss. (WJTV) - Two Meridian restaurant owners plead guilty to harboring undocumented immigrants and are fined almost $1-million, in addition to two-years probation.

China Buffet II owners Cheng Lin, 36 and his father Guo Guang Lin, 61, are said to have employed and housed the illegal immigrants for several years, according to US Attorney D. Michael Hurst Jr. of the Southern District of Mississippi.

From 2012 through January 2017, Homeland Security Investigations agents observed a 15-passenger van registered to China Buffet II making multiple trips to a house owned by China Buffet, to pickup illegal immigrants living at the house and transport them to the restaurant where they worked, and back to the home.

The Lin's pled guilty on Tuesday in US District Court.

Hurst Jr. says he hopes the sentence serves as 'warning' to other employers.

“Employing and harboring illegal aliens harms American citizens by stealing jobs and puts business owners who follow the law at a competitive disadvantage," Hurst Jr. said. "This should serve as a warning to all those who attempt to illegally profit and gain a competitive advantage by violating our immigration laws - you will be prosecuted and punished, and your ill-gotten gains will be forfeited. I commend the prosecutors and agents who worked tirelessly for years to bring these criminals to justice."

With a search warrant, Homeland Security agents seized $437,046 in cash from the Lins' safe deposit box at Citizen’s National Bank; $106,000 cash, in lieu of the house owned by the corporation and used to house illegal immigrants; $86,070 cash from Lin’s home; $68,124 cash from the China Buffet II Restaurant; $34,212.94 held at Citizens National Bank in the name of Lin’s China Buffet of Meridian, Inc

https://www.wjtv.com/news/state/almo...nts/1474640366