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Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Dismissal sought in immigrant work case

By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter


An attorney for one of the four Fischer Homes supervisors charged with employing illegal aliens said the federal immigration statutes he was charged under are so clearly and patently ambiguous that they should be declared unconstitutional.

In a motion filed in U.S. District Court in Covington, attorney Gary Sergent also asks Judge David Bunning to dismiss the charges against Timothy Copsy.

The problem Copsy faces, Sergent said, is that one section of the law makes it illegal for him to ask workers their immigration or citizenship status. Yet, he is charged under another section with knowingly harboring the immigrants by providing them jobs, Sergent said.

"The ... statutes, when read collectively, are clearly ambiguous," Sergent wrote.

"A person can be accused of illegally harboring an alien in circumstances where it is simultaneously a prohibited employment practice to inquire about nationality of legal immigrations status. An individual in (Copsy's) circumstances is subjected to potential civil penalties and employment related complaints if he asks employees of a subcontractor about their nationality or citizenship status."

Copsy was never the employer of any of the immigrants, Sergent noted. Instead, they were hired by a subcontractor, who authorities said is Robert Pratt.

Copsy had no control over the subcontractor, nor any business contracts Fischer Homes had with Pratt or other subcontractors, Sergent said.

But authorities said that distinction is nothing more than a ruse. All the work was coordinated by the Fischer supervisors and Pratt, and supervisors communicated directly with Pratt, according to an affidavit signed by James Bellamy, the lead agent for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

"This indicates that the Fischer supervisors are aware of Robert Pratt's business structure," Bellamy's affidavit charged. "This also is an important indicator that Fischer has knowledge that Robert Pratt and his construction companies are used to provide a layer between Fischer and the illegal alien subcontractors and workers.

"However, this layer does not relieve Fischer of the responsibility to ensure that their contractors are employing a legal workforce."

Fischer Homes has stood behind the supervisors and denied that they or the company did anything wrong.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBride, who is prosecuting the case, hasn't filed a response yet to Sergent's motion.

But Sergent said even the Department of Homeland Security admits the laws are troublesome. In his motions, Sergent said the department has said employers have flooded it with requests for help in adhering to the statutes, and admitted their complexities and ambiguities.

At least two of Copsy's co-defendants, Douglas Witt and William Allison, are joining in the motion.

Copsy, Witt, and Allison and a fourth supervisor, Bill Ring, were arrested in May when agents from ICE raided several Fischer Homes worksites in Boone County after a two-year investigation. Most of those arrested were Mexicans or Central American nationals charged with being in the United States illegally.

Many of them have pleaded guilty and face deportation. They remain in the United States because they might have to testify against Pratt or the supervisors.

Pratt is free on bond and under house arrest in Tennessee. The four supervisors are to stand trial beginning Sept. 11. Pratt's trial is to begin Oct. 4.