Feds say North Texas company continued hiring undocumented workers after being caught
Feds say North Texas company continued hiring undocumented workers after being caught
The government filed a forfeiture lawsuit against Vilhauer Enterprises, seeking almost $2 million for alleged alien harboring
https://dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arc...4GRWAVGJ44.JPG
ALLEN, Texas — As part of an ongoing criminal investigation, special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) executed criminal search warrants at CVE Technology Group Inc. (CVE), and four of CVE’s staffing companies.(Charles Reed / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enf)
By Kevin Krause
11:54 AM on Nov 26, 2019
A Plano excavation company is being investigated by federal authorities for continuing to employ undocumented immigrants even after previously being caught and fined for it, according to federal court documents.
A 2018 inspection of Vilhauer Enterprises found that 71 of the 109 employees whom the company said it had fired due to suspect documentation were still receiving checks, according to Homeland Security Investigations.
“HSI’s investigation revealed discrepancies in the recruiting and hiring process of Vilhauer involving incomplete and fraudulent documents,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McClendon wrote in a forfeiture lawsuit filed Thursday against the company in the Eastern District of Texas.
The government, in an apparent continuation of its crackdown on employers, filed the lawsuit after seizing $1.8 million from bank accounts connected to the company. The lawsuit says the money is proceeds from a crime: bringing in and harboring aliens.
“Vilhauer had been in the process of making compliance procedures more stringent when the government raised the issue,” said Matthew Orwig, an attorney for the company. “We are in the process of trying to reach a resolution.”
A 2018 inspection found that almost half of the company’s 475 workers submitted work authorization documents with inconsistencies, according to the forfeiture lawsuit.
The lawsuit says Vilhauer pretended to fire the illegal workers only to continue employing them under different names. The company, which formed in 2011, provides various “earth moving” services for the construction industry, including tree clearing, grading and mass excavation, its website said.
It’s at the southeast corner of the Dallas North Tollway and State Highway 121.
Vilhauer is the latest target in a series of immigration enforcement operations carried out in North Texas since a nationwide crackdown on employers began last year.
Over the last two years, agents have conducted large-scale raids of two companies — Load Trail in Sumner and CVE Technology Group in Allen — and detained numerous workers.
https://dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arc...LNPJYDXJB4.JPGALLEN, Texas — As part of an ongoing criminal investigation, special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) executed criminal search warrants at CVE Technology Group Inc. (CVE), and four of CVE’s staffing companies.(Charles Reed / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enf)
Criminal investigations into those companies continue, federal authorities said Monday.
Leaders in the North Texas construction industry have warned of labor shortages if President Donald Trump’s administration continues to take a hard line on immigration.
Javier Perez, a Dallas employment lawyer, said he believes employees will continue to suffer the brunt of the government’s enforcement push while companies pay nominal fees to settle such violations.
“It’s the employees who suffer the consequences,” he said. “It’s something that’s exploited.”
Employers have no incentive to stop their practices because they face few to no consequences, he said.
“People who are coming here are only coming here because there’s work and people are hiring them,” Perez said.
‘Suspicious or fraudulent’
Employers must verify the identity and work eligibility of everyone they hire, using what’s known as an I-9 form. Since 1986, it has been against federal law for employers to knowingly hire people who are in the U.S. without employment authorization.
Immigration agents who inspected Vilhauer in 2015 found 113 employees who “provided suspicious or fraudulent documentation to obtain employment,” the forfeiture lawsuit said.
Vilhauer acknowledged the violations and paid a $750 fine to settle the case, the forfeiture lawsuit said. The company also said it would fire the undocumented employees.
In September 2018, agents from Homeland Security Investigations served Vilhauer with another “notice of inspection,” seeking employee I-9 forms and supporting documents, “as part of a national initiative,” the forfeiture lawsuit said.
The company submitted a total of 475 forms.
https://dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arc...FM3KEOWWSU.JPGVilhauer Enterprises headquarters, which is on the second floor of this building near the intersection of State Hwy 121 and the Dallas North Tollway, on Tuesday, November 26, 2019 in Plano. ICE is investigating the company for fraud for continuing to employ undocumented immigrants even after being caught and fined for it in 2015. (Ashley Landis/The Dallas Morning News)(Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)
And agents discovered that two-thirds of 109 employees who had reportedly been “terminated” continued to receive checks from the company, according to the forfeiture lawsuit.
HSI said it found that Vilhauer was engaging in the practice of “pretending to terminate an illegal employee only for that employee to continue working under different identifying information,” the lawsuit said.
Perez said it seems “brazen” for an employer to defy a government enforcement order.
But he also said he’s not surprised because while the enforcement actions “pay lip service to the paranoia about a crisis,” they are not making a dent in the problem.
“Unfortunately, that is common among employers who are savvy,” Perez said.
Crackdown
Rod Vilhauer, one of the company’s owners, has been in the excavation business in North Texas for decades.
Vilhauer formed his previous company, Rodman LLC, in the 1990s with NBA star Dennis Rodman, according to media reports and unrelated lawsuits.
HSI executive associate director Derek N. Benner said last year that his agency is enforcing laws to protect jobs for U.S. citizens; reduce the incentive for illegal immigration; eliminate unfair competition; and strengthen public safety and national security.
“Employers who use an illegal workforce as part of their business model put businesses that do follow the law at a competitive disadvantage,” Benner said in a prepared statement about the stepped-up enforcement.
https://dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arc...DL4FR6XMGY.jpgU.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are seen at the receiving gates of Load Trail, a Sumner-based business agents raided for undocumented workers Tuesday morning. (Lora Arnold/Paris News)(Lora Arnold)
In 2018, HSI’s worksite investigations, I-9 audits and worker arrests soared 300 percent to 750 percent from the previous year, according to agency statistics.
Immigration agents armed with search warrants raided Load Trail in August 2018 near Paris and detained more than 150 workers suspected of being in the country without authorization.
ICE said it was one of the nation's largest single-site enforcement operations in years. The company, which makes trailers that hitch onto the back of vehicles, is in Sumner, about 100 miles northeast of Dallas.
The raid was part of a criminal investigation into Load Trail for alleged illegal employment of foreign workers. Authorities said the company is a repeat offender.
Load Trail paid a $445,000 fine in 2014 for hiring undocumented immigrants to work in its plant.
At the time, the company employed more than 179 unauthorized workers, federal authorities have said.
And in April, nearly 300 people suspected of working in the U.S. illegally were arrested at CVE Technology Group in Allen in what federal authorities called the largest enforcement operation of its kind in a decade.
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