Doughnut exec pleads guilty in immigration case
By ANABELLE GARAY Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press
Aug. 28, 2008, 4:51PM
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DALLAS — The president of family-owned Shipley Do-Nuts pleaded guilty to a federal charge Thursday in one of the latest crackdowns on employers who hire illegal immigrants.

Lawrence W. Shipley III pleaded guilty in Houston to a misdemeanor charge of continuing to employ unauthorized workers and was placed on six months probation.

Shipley Do-Nuts was expected to plead guilty Friday to knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. The company would forfeit $1.3 million and be placed on probation, officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

The case is one of several brought recently against employers and managers who hire illegal immigrants.

Immigrant advocates have long criticized ICE, saying the agency too often targets undocumented workers while letting the employers who hire them go unscathed.

Some operations, like one at Houston-based Action Rags USA in June, have led to indictments against business owners and managers. But other large-scale raids, such as those at Swift & Co. plants across the U.S. in 2006 and at Agriprocessors, Inc. in Iowa in May, have not.

ICE officials contend the criticism is unwarranted. Many of the prosecutions are the result of lengthy investigations that involve poring over volumes of documents, Julie Myers, assistant secretary of homeland security, told The Associated Press.

"Sometimes it takes months. Sometimes it takes several years, that's not uncommon," she said. "We're actually seeing those cases come to fruition."

ICE began investigating Shipley Do-Nuts in January after an employment discrimination suit against the doughnut-maker ended. Transcripts and other documents from that case showed the company knew it was hiring undocumented workers, said special agent in charge Robert Rutt.

Agents raided the company's Houston headquarters and plant in April. Some dozen illegal immigrants were arrested, including some who lived in an employee dormitory.

ICE found Shipley Do-Nuts owned properties where many illegal immigrant workers lived. The amount the company would forfeit if it pleads guilty is equal to the properties' value, Rutt said.

Shipley, the grandson of the company's founder, has been president of the doughnut maker since 2005, when he inherited it from his father.

A message left for Shipley was not immediately returned Thursday afternoon.

Shipley Do-Nuts has more than 190 stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas.

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