http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles ... -alien.txt

Illegal alien says boss didn't pay up
By CLAIR JOHNSON
Of The Gazette Staff

An illegal alien told a federal jury this week he responded to a radio advertisement in Denver for jobs and was brought to the Bozeman area to hang drywall but was not paid by the men who hired him.

The men, Rickardo A. Armas and Jamie R. Rivas-Ortiz, are on trial in Billings on charges of conspiracy and harboring illegal aliens. Armas, 35, of Leander, Texas, and Rivas-Ortiz, 36, of Denver, face 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Armas and Rivas-Ortiz exploited and manipulated illegal aliens into doing work in Bozeman, Big Sky and Gardiner from October to December 2003, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Wolff. One of the jobs involved working at the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center, a federally funded project for the National Park Service in Gardiner, he said.

When the center's project superintendent sought documentation on the workers, Armas lied and said he had papers but not with him in Montana, Wolff said. Armas and Rivas-Ortiz knew the workers were illegal, provided them shelter and used them to make money, he told the jury in opening statements. The men did not pay the workers, moved them from job to job to avoid immigration officials and housed them in motels and a trailer home, Wolff said.

When immigration and law enforcement officers went to a residence west of Bozeman on Dec. 3, 2003, they found eight illegal aliens in a two-bedroom trailer that had no furniture. The occupants had little food and were hungry, Wolff said. An investigation into who had rented the trailer led to Armas, Rivas-Ortiz and the alleged conspiracy.

Armas' attorney, Joseph Jardine of Salt Lake City however, said Armas did not earn any money off the backs of illegal aliens. The evidence, he said, will show there was an agreement between Armas, Rivas-Ortiz and Will Spinks, a local subcontractor, to do legitimate work.

Rather, it was Spinks who profited from the work of illegal aliens, Jardine said. Spinks treated illegal workers "like slaves" and didn't want to pay them, he said. Spinks made "tens of thousands of dollars" off of illegal workers and then called immigration officials, Jardine said. The workers were deported, making it difficult for them to collect money from Spinks, who was not indicted.

One of the workers, Manuel Montes-Raizola, from Mexico, testified he entered the United States illegally to work and provide for his family and was in Denver when he heard a radio advertisement for work. He responded and met Rivas-Ortiz, who hired him and others. Later that same day, Rivas-Ortiz took the group to Bozeman in an all-night drive. Montes-Raizola said Rivas-Ortiz met Armas at a Burger King and the group started working the next day.

Montes-Raizola said Armas, Rivas-Oritz and Spinks all knew he and his co-workers were illegal aliens and told them to make up Social Security numbers.

One of the jobs was working at the Yellowstone Club, Montes-Raizola said. The Yellowstone Club is an exclusive gated resort of multi-million-dollar homes near Big Sky. Montes-Raizola called the Yellowstone Club homes beautiful and said, "the nicest ones in Montana are there."

Montes-Raizola said Armas paid him for five days work and that was all, although Armas and Rivas-Ortiz kept saying they'd pay them "next week." Montes-Raizola said he lives and works in Bozeman and now has a Social Security number and a work permit.

When Jardine suggested Montes-Raizola was "snitching" on the defendants in hopes of staying in the United States forever, Montes-Raizola said he was "fighting for what's mine" and that his staying depended on the government.

Spinks, a sheetrock contractor in Gallatin Gateway, testified Tuesday he hired Armas and his company to supply workers for several of his jobs but that the deal soured. The workers did poor work, finished only one job and ultimately cost him his builders, he said.

Spinks said he has been "blackballed" from jobs in Big Sky. And, he said, he got fired from the Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center job in Gardiner because he couldn't get the proper identification for workers supplied by Armas. Spinks said he was paid $10,000 of the Center's $35,000 to $40,000 job and that he paid Armas $6,000 cash.

In an exchange with Armas' attorney, Spinks denied making $47,000 from the jobs and said he moved workers to different sites based on whether a job was ready and not to avoid immigration. Spinks acknowledged it was obvious within a few days that there was a problem with the workers' identification.

Spinks said he called immigration officials and told them to check on the trailer but denied it was to avoid having to pay the workers. And he denied allegations he had called immigration on a previous job. Spinks said he told Armas he had to supply Social Security numbers for the workers to get paid on the Gardiner job and that he would call immigration if Armas didn't provide the information. Armas replied that he didn't care if he called immigration, Spinks said.

The trial continues today with U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull presiding.


Published on Wednesday, July 12, 2006.
Last modified on 7/12/2006 at 12:04 am