http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascit ... 003968.htm

Posted on Mon, Nov. 13, 2006

Employers get fines, probation for hiring illegal immigrants

ROXANA HEGEMAN
Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. - A Wichita manufacturing company, its owner and a general manager were ordered Monday to pay fines totaling $210,000 for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, but the employers were spared prison time despite the judge's misgivings in the case.

As part of a plea bargain, Bob Eisel Powder Coatings and its owner and president, Bob Eisel, pleaded guilty in August to a single count of making false written statements to the government. General manager Kenric "Butch" Steinert also pleaded guilty to the same charge.

In addition to the fines, U.S. District Judge Wesley Brown sentenced Eisel and Steinert to three years' probation.

The corporation will pay the bulk of the fine, $175,000. Eisel was fined $25,000 and Steinert was fined $10,000.

"Under our system of government you are very lucky you don't have to go back to Mexico and figure out where you are going to get a job," Brown told the defendants.

The government and defense attorneys argued for probation rather than prison time after the judge indicated he might order incarceration despite the plea deal. Brown reluctantly followed the recommendations of the agreement.

"This is one of the few cases where both defendants and government agree with what should be done," Brown said. "The court has some question about their judgment."

The judge noted that the three illegal immigrants who formerly worked for the firm had gotten prison sentences of 13 or 14 months.

Noting that he handles immigration cases daily, Brown called illegal immigration "an almost insurmountable problem that exists in this country."

Eisel and Steinert declined to comment after the sentencing.

After the hearing, U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren said the defendants had taken responsibility since the beginning of the case, didn't make excuses or denials and cooperated with prosecutors.

"In our system we reward that conduct," Melgren said.

The illegal immigrants who worked at the company got prison sentences because their convictions involved such offenses as identity theft, Melgren said.

At the government's request, Brown earlier this month dismissed a 28-count indictment against company foreman Troy Hook on the same charges that initially faced all of the defendants.

In a deferred prosecution deal, Hook agreed to pay a fine of $5,000 in return for the government not seeking reinstatement of the indictment.

In court papers, the defendants told the judge a prison sentence likely would result in the company closing its plants in Oklahoma and Kansas, causing 80 employees to lose their jobs and forcing 48 customers to seek new sources for their powder coating needs. About 24 workers are employed in Wichita.

Melgren said the criminal justice system does not allow such "collateral issues" as job losses to be factored into sentencing individual defendants.

In pleading guilty, Eisel and Steinert acknowledged they intentionally made false statements between 2002 and 2005 to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

According to the superseding information, the men told authorities that Francisco Javier Avila-Garcia, also known as "Poncho," had presented employment documents that were genuine when they knew the documents were fraudulent.

The original indictment included eight counts of making false statements to the U.S. government, eight counts of misusing Social Security numbers, eight counts of receiving false documents as evidence of stay or employment, three counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of harboring illegal aliens.

When the company began receiving periodic letters in 2002 from the Social Security Administration notifying it that several of its employees were working under suspicious Social Security numbers, the company told employees they would have to obtain different numbers to continue working, according to the indictment.

The company would then "rehire" the same worker using the new identification, while allowing the worker to retain any benefits such as vacation or sick leave tied to length of service, the indictment charges. Prosecutors have said many of the same employees worked under as many as five or six separate false identities over a period of years.