Thread: Authorities say major human smuggling investigation continue

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/dulut ... 843605.htm

Posted on Sat, Jun. 17, 2006

Authorities say major human smuggling investigation continues


Associated Press

GRAND FORKS, N.D. - A case of human smuggling that began with two men walking away from a restaurant here has led authorities to thousands of illegal immigrant workers slaving in Asian restaurants across the Midwest, a prosecutor says.

"This whole case started with two Mexican guys who walked away from the restaurant in Grand Forks - or were fired - and were found walking along a road outside Grand Forks in a thunderstorm," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick Chase said.

That was in August 2004. The two Mexican men told Immigration and Customs agents they had been working more than 70 hours a week for less than $2 an hour at the Buffet House, a Chinese restaurant in Grand Forks. They had been living with eight other restaurant employees in a small apartment a block from the restaurant.

Federal officials said they uncovered a multistate racket of human smuggling, which from 2000 to early 2005 had shipped 6,000 illegal immigrants to restaurants in North Dakota, Minnesota and other states.

Ya Cao, of McKinney, Texas, was sentenced Wednesday in Fargo to 21 months in prison for her role in the scheme. She was the last of eight coconspirators who ran the pipeline smuggling humans into virtual slavery, Chase said. All the workers were Hispanic illegal immigrants, he said.

In sentencing Cao, U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson said the scheme was an especially "destructive conspiracy" that amounted to modern-day "slave labor" and treated the illegal immigrant workers "like animals."

Shan Wei Yu, also of McKinney, was sentenced by Erickson in December to nine years in prison.

Lee Finstad, a Grand Forks attorney who defended Cao, sought a lesser sentence, saying she had a clean record and had cooperated with authorities.

Yu, through his company, Great Texas Employment Agency, took advantage of Cao after she came to America to seek political asylum, Finstad said.

Finstad asked Erickson to delay the start of Cao's sentence because her husband and son recently received permission to leave China for the United States. Erickson said Cao could report on Aug. 1 to a prison close to where her family decides to live.

Six of the illegal immigrant employees found working in the Buffet House in Grand Forks were deported once their illegal status was determined. Several cooperated in the investigation.

Owners Yun Di Lu and Hong Peng were sentenced last year in Grand Forks to four months in prison; Peng was deported to China, Lu still is seeking asylum in the United States. The restaurant was closed but reopened months ago under new ownership.

Authorities said restaurant owners paid $450 to get a cheap employee who was run up through the pipeline, probably from Texas or California. Cell phone calls connected Yu's employment agency to Asian restaurants around the Midwest.

Restaurant owners deducted the $450, as well as rent money for crowded apartments and meal money from the paychecks of the illegal employees, authorities said. The owners did not deduct federal income tax or Social Security payments from the pay of the overworked illegal immigrant workers.

The case involved restaurants in Grand Forks, Devils Lake, Fargo, Bismarck and Minot as well as Aberdeen, S.D., the Minneapolis area and Duluth in Minnesota, and in several other Midwest states.

"It appeared it was really kind of an assessment of supply and demand at its most sinister level," Chase said. "The head of this conspiracy basically realized there was a big market in restaurants he knew of that needed illegal workers because they were cheap. And he was living in an area where there was an abundance of illegal workers."

Restaurant owners asked for small people or those who did not speak English or were new to America, obviously looking for people who could be controlled, Chase said.

"These guys were taken (from Texas) to places like Grand Forks and Devils Lake and dropped off, and the workers relied on the employer for housing, for a job and for food. They have no connections in Grand Forks or Devils Lake, don't speak English, and get paid less than they were told they would, and conditions are less than what was promised, he said. "But where exactly do they turn at that point?"

The whereabouts of most of the 6,000 workers sent through the pipeline in the years 2000 to 2004 are not known, Chase said.

"Cao has given us a lot of information, and we seized a lot of ledgers of deliveries," Chase said, referring to illegal workers placed in Asian restaurants across the Midwest. "This information is being followed up on, in at least 30 federal districts."


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Information from: Grand Forks Herald, http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/

Appeals court upholds sentence in immigrant trafficking case
By DAVE KOLPACK
Associated Press Writer

FARGO - A federal appeals court has upheld the sentence of man convicted in a human smuggling case in which authorities said thousands of illegal immigrants were brought to work at restaurants at North Dakota and other states.

Shan Wei Yu, of McKinney, Texas, is serving nine years for illegal immigrant trafficking and money laundering. He appealed on six issues, including a claim that his sentence was unusual.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the appeal Wednesday, saying U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson "gave weight to all the relevant factors" in handing down the sentence.

"There were an enormous number of illegal aliens involved in this smuggling scheme," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick Chase said.

"Yu essentially had a two for one policy," Chase said Wednesday. "If any of his workers would leave or not work out, he would deliver another one for free. I just think you're getting so close to treating people like commodities or a product."

Authorities said they began investigating Yu in 2004, after a border patrol agent found two men riding bicycles on Interstate 29 in North Dakota.

They admitted they were illegal immigrants from Mexico who were working at a Grand Forks restaurant, and one had an employment contract saying he would be paid $1,000 per month, court records said.

Erickson said in court that the scheme amounted to slave labor and that Yu was dealing in a "human tragedy."

Chase said it was the first time he asked for a sentence on the high end of federal guidelines. He had asked for the maximum of 10 years, which Erickson said he would have approved except for Yu's poor health, according to court documents.

Authorities said during the trial that Yu and his company, Great Texas Employment Agency, brought at least 1,000 illegal immigrants into the United States. Chase said that number was likely much higher.

"At trial, he said he delivered over 6,000 aliens to different restaurants and he claimed all of them were legal," Chase said. "That flew in the face of the facts."

Authorities believe Yu earned at least $900,000 for the workers he placed at restaurants across the country. He hired drivers to deliver at least 40 illegal immigrants to Asian restaurants in North Dakota during a 15-month stretch, prosecutors said.

Yu's girlfriend, Ya Cao, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for helping recruit illegal workers. Cao's attorney, Lee Finstad, said Yu took advantage of Cao after she came to the U.S. to seek political asylum.

The appeals court denied Yu's claim that he should have been granted a competency hearing to assess whether he was able to understand the proceedings and assist his trial lawyer. Yu defended himself during much of the case.

"I never saw anything that suggested to me that he wasn't competent and neither did his trial counsel, who never raised the issue," Chase said. "It was never much of an issue in my mind."

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles ... 132860.txt