July 25, 2007

Illegals accessed airbase under FEMA contract

A Houston man has been sentenced for harboring illegal aliens, some of whom had access to an Alexandria airbase and Louisiana National Guard facility under a Federal Emergency Management Agency construction contract.
Arturo Ibarra-Gamez, 38, of Houston, was indicted in June 2006 following an investigation by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Lafayette.

They found that Ibarra-Gamez was an undocumented alien who owned Art’s Construction based in Houston, employing 30 to 40 workers. Immigration and Customs in May 2006 learned that through a contract with an Alexandria construction firm working under a FEMA contract, Ibarra-Gamez sent illegal aliens to a work site where they had access to an airbase and Louisiana National Guard facility.

Ibarra-Gamez was sentenced July 20 by U.S. District Judge Dee Drell to 22 months in prison plus three years of supervised release for harboring illegal aliens, employing unauthorized aliens and improper entry of an alien, U.S. Attorney Donald Washington of Lafayette said.

Drell ordered Ibarra-Gamez not to return to the United States following his release without approval from the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. He also was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine.

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