Thread: CO - Hudson couple to be deported for harboring illegal immi

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/ ... 8-23-53-12 Sep 18, 11:53 PM EDT

Hudson couple to be deported for harboring illegal immigrants

DENVER (AP) -- A couple from Hudson faces deportation, and their son was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine after they were sentenced Monday for smuggling and harboring illegal immigrants.

Moises Rodriguez, 65, and Maria Rodriguez, 61, were sentenced to time served, or about 11 months behind bars. Both were ordered into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation proceedings, federal prosecutors said.

Their son, Javier Rodriguez, 39, was fined and sentenced to three years of probation, with the first six months under home detention.

All pled guilty to harboring and smuggling charges on May 19.

An investigation began after immigration officials received a tip in October 2004 of an illegal labor camp at a ranch in Hudson, according to court documents.

Moises and Javier Rodriguez would drive immigrants who had been smuggled into the U.S. to Hudson, where they would work for the family at various farms, according to a plea agreement.

The family deducted a "smuggling fee" of $1,100 to $1,300 from the workers' pay, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Javier Rodriguez and co-defendant Ignacio German Juarez, who has already been deported, supervised the workers, prosecutors said.

The family agreed to forfeit $128,000 in cash and some money in a bank account that was seized.

Attorneys for Moises and Maria Rodriguez said the couple came to the United States more than 30 years ago, received amnesty in the 1980s, and did not realize the severity of their crimes.

All three defendants told U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham they were remorseful and would their punishment.

"I didn't know we were wrong," Javier Rodriguez said.

Some of the couple's children cried outside the courtroom and said it would be difficult for their parents to return to Mexico. All eight of the couple's children and 20 grandchildren are in the U.S., they said.

Jeffrey Copp, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Denver, said Moises Rodriquez created the smuggling and work operation solely for his own profit and benefit. "Today's imposed prison sentences show that Rodriquez ultimately lost a lot more than he gained," Copp said in a written statement.

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http://www.currentargus.com/ci_4359308

3 sentenced in an industry lacking watch
By Bruce Finley
Denver Post Staff Writer



Three people sentenced by a federal judge Monday for transporting and harboring illegal immigrants were licensed farm- labor contractors - an industry with little state or federal oversight.

State officials say they license about 15 labor contractors a year to supply foreign workers to farms around Colorado.

Over the past 18 months, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has received at least 10 complaints about labor brokers, although it could not be determined whether current license holders were targets of those complaints.

One complaint reviewed by The Denver Post through a records request alleged an unlicensed contractor in southeastern Colorado brought illegal workers to a farm and assaulted one of the workers.

U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham on Monday sentenced Moises and Maria Rodriguez of Hudson, about 30 miles northeast of Denver, to 11 months in prison for harboring and transporting illegal immigrants. They were credited with the 11 months they have already served in jail and, because they aren't U.S. citizens, face deportation to Mexico.

Their son, Javier, was sentenced to three years' probation, with home detention for the first six months.

The parents were licensed as farm-labor contractors through the end of last year, records show. Federal agents in 2004 raided the Hudson compound where they housed illegal workers smuggled from Mexico.

Prosecutors said Moises Rodriguez directed workers who contacted him from Mexico, telling them where to meet smugglers, who guided them across the U.S.-Mexico border. Rodriguez then picked up the workers on the U.S. side of the border and with his son drove them to Colorado. They worked the migrants 12 hours a day with no days off and deducted "smuggling fees" from their pay.

Mistreatment of workers often stays hidden. Social workers who hear of abuse and who file complaints say they are reluctant to speak out for fear employers could retaliate against workers.

Some worker-advocacy groups are limited in handling cases involving illegal immigrants because they receive government funding.

None of the complaints received over the past 18 months has been investigated, state and federal labor officials acknowledged.

The problem: Colorado labor officials "don't have the manpower" to investigate labor suppliers, said Don Peitersen, director of the division of employment and training in the state labor department.

So, state officials say, they forward all complaints to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Yet record checks revealed that only one of the complaints had been forwarded - the complaint received in July about the unlicensed activity in southeastern Colorado.

Colorado's farm-labor contractor-licensing system was designed to help farm employers make sure workers they hire are legal and have appropriate housing and transport.

Labor suppliers are required to have a federal and a state license in Colorado. These authorize them to recruit foreign workers, house them and drive them to and from worksites. Some licensees are only allowed to do some of this.

Complaints that state labor officials receive often involve alleged failure to pay workers money they've earned, unlicensed driving or housing of workers, and substandard living conditions, said Larry Gallegos, monitor advocate in the state labor department.

Two other recent complaints he received involved unlicensed contractors who apparently brought illegal workers from Mexico to two farms in southern Colorado. Gallegos said he plans to forward these to federal authorities soon using a federal complaint form. He recently met with federal labor officials asking how they prefer to receive complaints forwarded from the state.

At the U.S. Department of Labor's district headquarters, Alex Salaiz, district director of the wage and hour division, fielded the one complaint state officials sent his way.

"The conditions you describe will be looked into as soon as possible," he wrote back. "You should be aware that the investigation may not be complete for some time."

Child-labor matters and illegal firings take top federal priority, Salaiz said. Complaints involving farmworkers will be considered, he said, noting he has 21 investigators for a three-state area.

"We can't react unless there's a complaint," he said. "... My system is not broken. I can't say about the state."

"I didn't know we were wrong," Javier Rodriguez said.

He's been here 30 years and didn't know, riiggghhtt!

Between their true ignorance and in this case pseudo ignorance illegals have to be the most ignorant humans on earth.

Greed, hypocracy and playing dumb!!!

They should be deported! I feel they lost their right to amnesty!!