Thread: Immigration trial puts home builders, market in the spotligh

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/15480562.htm

Posted on Sat, Sep. 09, 2006

Immigration trial puts home builders, market in the spotlight

ELIZABETH DUNBAR
Associated Press

FLORENCE, Ky. - Condominiums and townhouses cover rolling hills, and tree seedlings barely make shadows on new pavement.

The streets lead to a dead end where portable toilets and equipment are set up at a new construction site.

And in this subdivision built in northern Kentucky across the river from Cincinnati, a "for sale" sign here and there has been jabbed into the green grass.

Potential buyers might not know, but officials with the building company, Fischer Homes Inc., and some of its subcontractors have been under federal scrutiny for allegedly harboring illegal immigrants.

In May, immigration agents disrupted Fischer Homes construction projects and rounded up 76 suspected undocumented workers. Four Fischer supervisors were arrested and charged, as were several people managing companies Fischer had hired as subcontractors. Two additional Fischer supervisors were indicted late last month.

The arrests caught many by surprise and sparked questions among those working in northern Kentucky's booming housing market that has relied heavily on immigrant labor.

Some hope the trial of Fischer supervisors Timothy Copsy, Douglas Witt, William Allison, Ronald Vanlandingham and David Schroeder will shed light on what responsibility companies have when it comes to making sure their workers are properly documented. At least three defendants - Copsy, Witt and Allison - are expected to stand trial on Nov. 27. Charges against a sixth supervisor, William Ring, were dismissed on Wednesday.

In the Fischer Homes supervisors' case, the main question centers on subcontractors. Home builders usually contract much of their work out to companies that specialize in things like drywall, framing or roofing. In this case, Fischer had hired companies that paid subcontractors, according to court documents.

The owner of some of those companies is Robert Pratt, who faces an October trial on charges of harboring illegal aliens, money laundering and conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty, but some of those working for him have entered guilty pleas and could testify against him.

During the investigation, immigration authorities said they arrested 93 illegal workers. Fifty-nine of them have been deported to Mexico and Central America, but a couple dozen remain in the United States under court supervision and could be called as material witnesses in the cases against their employers.

It appears that none of the undocumented workers in the case were hired directly by Fischer, which is based in Crestview Hills and is a leading builder in the area. But authorities contend that the Fischer supervisors knew their subcontractors were employing undocumented workers and can't hide behind them.

"This layer does not relieve Fischer of the responsibility to ensure that their contractors are employing a legal work force," wrote James Bellamy, an agent with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Fort Mitchell.

In the criminal complaint against Witt, Allison and Copsy, Bellamy also said Fischer and its contractors "equally bear the responsibility to hire a legal work force."

But some in the home building industry are concerned about what that could mean. Besides signing a required agreement form with subcontractors stating that hiring laws will be followed, home builders can't and aren't required to do much else, said Dan Dressman, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Northern Kentucky.

"Do they go to check to see if everyone on the job site is legal? No, because that's really not their responsibility," Dressman said. He compares it to a homeowner hiring a landscape company to mow the lawn.

"You don't go out and check on them," Dressman said. "If that's the interpretation that they're taking, a lot of people aren't aware of that."

Dressman said he understands the distinction authorities are making with Fischer Homes - that the supervisors allegedly knew about the illegal workers and aided in harboring them. Still, he wonders if Fischer should have been singled out.

"They have a great reputation in this market, and I think they've been unfairly tainted," he said.

The company and lawyers for Copsy, Witt and Allison have stayed fairly quiet since the arrests in May. Fischer Homes held a news conference following the arrests, and in June issued a statement reiterating that the undocumented workers weren't Fischer employees and that any companies working for Fischer had to sign contracts that include an agreement to comply with immigration laws. The statement also said that federal anti-discrimination laws prevented Fischer from asking subcontractors about their immigration status.

An attorney for the supervisors used some of those arguments last month in a motion to dismiss the charges. Gary Sergent, the attorney for Copsy, said his client had no authority over the undocumented workers and wasn't listed on the subcontractor agreements Fischer had with Pratt's companies.

"Mr. Copsy was responsible for coordinating the construction and seeing that the construction met the schedule for completion set by his employer. He did not have direct supervision over" the subcontractors' employees, Sergent wrote in the motion. Judge David Bunning denied the motion for dismissal.

U.S. immigration authorities say the arrests shouldn't have come as a surprise. In recent months, employers have been charged with harboring illegal workers in places like Springdale, Ark.; Wichita, Kan. and Buffalo, N.Y.

The criminal investigations are part of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement strategy that has proven more effective than fining companies, ICE spokesman Tim Counts said.

"Employers shrugged it off and looked at is as a cost of business," Counts said of the fines. "Facing federal criminal charges is bound to get anybody's attention much more than an administrative fine."

ICE hopes Congress will approve funding to add more than 200 special agents and staff to worksite enforcement efforts.

Meanwhile, some in northern Kentucky are concerned that strict enforcement of immigration laws would cause a labor shortage. Boone County, where the arrests were made, is one of the fastest-growing counties in Kentucky, according to U.S. Census data.

If the federal government is serious about enforcing immigration laws, then more work visas should be granted to immigrants, said Nancy Spivey, vice president for work force and education at the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. She's hopeful that Congress will approve immigration legislation that will include a guest worker program.

"The system as a whole will need some strict attention," Spivey said. "If we sustain the economy the way that we want to, we'll need more workers."

Pay Americans a fair wage. When construction go to site after site, and are NOT hired because they are Americans, after a while, they stop going.

In behavorism, it's called 'extinction'.

a couple dozen remain in the United States under court supervision

He compares it to a homeowner hiring a landscape company to mow the lawn.

"You don't go out and check on them," Dressman said.

Maybe you don't Dressman, but there are millions of patriotic Americans who WON'T hire illegals. Evidentially you're not one of them.

This sounds just like what I read on the Internet re KB Homes in California.

The 200 special agents that ICE hopes Congress will approve, should spend their first week on the job viewing all the Internet posts of the companies already identified that hire illegals, and go after the biggest in each industry (and in each state, also).

I just learned from a friend who hired an illegal to do some day work, that the illegal's son, who is thirteen, was hired by KB Homes, in Perris, CA, to wave signs (a silly practice in CA to draw folks in cars to a new home development). I don't know if he is an anchor baby. Does anyone know the minimum age in California, to be employed? (16?)