Harrington man charged with hiring illegal aliens
Harrington man charged in aliens case
By Judy Harrison
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 - Bangor Daily News
BANGOR - The husband of a Harrington woman being held on immigration charges has been indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiring to hire illegal aliens.
Juan Centeno Perez, 46, of Harrington is charged with conspiring between January 2005 and June 2006 to hire at least 10 illegal aliens to work at a Washington County sea cucumber processing plant.
Perez is believed to have fled the area.
If arrested and convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
He was indicted on Sept. 19, but documents were not made public until Monday.
Doris Amanda Ayala Escalante pleaded not guilty in July to charges of visa fraud and aggravated identity theft after being indicted earlier that month by a federal grand jury.
If convicted of those charges, she faces up to 12 years in prison.
It could not be determined Monday whether Escalante also will be charged with conspiracy but her involvement in the alleged conspiracy is described in the Perez indictment.
Perez is charged with conspiring to provide illegal workers as a labor contractor to work at the sea cucumber plant in Lubec operated by ISF Trading Co., a Portland firm. Perez allegedly falsely represented the workers to be legally employable, according to the indictment.
Firms must knowingly employ illegal aliens to be charged.
Perez allegedly arranged to rent mobile homes in Columbia for the illegal workers. He also used a 2002 Chevrolet cargo truck, an enclosed, windowless delivery truck not intended for human passengers, in which as many as a dozen aliens could ride to and from work, according to the indictment.
In January 2006, the operation apparently came to the attention of investigators when a passenger van carrying 18 of the workers broke down by the side of the road. At least one worker called Perez on a cell phone, according to court documents. Perez allegedly told them to hide before immigration officials arrived, but all 18 were arrested and found to be in the country illegally.
The workers were released and ordered to appear for deportation hearings later that year, according to court documents, but continued to work at ISF Trading.
The Social Security Administration informed Perez in mid-2006, according to the indictment, that 58 of the employee names and Social Security numbers he had reported on W-2 Forms for the previous year did not agree with Social Security records.
Sole ownership of the Mexican Restaurant in Hancock was transferred to Escalante in late 2006 or early 2007 allegedly to avoid problems that were developing for Perez who had not paid employee taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.
Escalante and Perez opened the Mexican Store on U.S. Route 1 in Harrington seven years ago to serve the needs of the growing Hispanic community in Washington County. It closed earlier this year. The couple opened the restaurant in Hancock and it closed temporarily in July shortly after Escalante’s arrest.
Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Perez is asked to call 800-232-5378.
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