Iowa City construction company owner charged with harboring illegal workers

by Trish Mehaffey :: UPDATED: 21 June 2011 | 6:00 pm

Samira Zuniga, owner of Xtreme Construction, is accused of harboring and employing roofers from Mexico who were charged in April with immigrant violations. (Crystal LoGiudice/The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS – The owner of an Iowa City construction company was formally charged today in federal court with harboring and employing illegal immigrants.

Samira Zuniga, owner of Xtreme Construction, is charged with one count of harboring and transporting illegal immigrants and one count of employing illegal immigrants. She is accused of harboring and employing roofers from Mexico who were charged in April with immigrant violations, according to court documents.

A preliminary hearing and detention hearing for Samira Zuniga is set 10 a.m. Thursday in U.S. District Court.

A van registered to Samira Zuniga was pulled over by Marion Police on April 11, with Antonio Zuniga and four other unidentified Hispanic men, according to an affidavit of the criminal complaint. On April 27, Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested the nine roofers who were working for Xtreme Construction, a sub contractor for Eastern Iowa Construction.

Zuniga, originally from Guatemala, became a naturalized citizen in 2007, but Antonio Zuniga, listed as “signerâ€