Lexington farm to pay $1 MILLION fine for hiring illegal alien workers
Lexington farm company to pay $1M fine, gets probation for hiring undocumented workers
Thursday, March 24th 2016, 3:11 pm PDT
Thursday, March 24th 2016, 3:47 pm PDT
By Jack Kuenzie, Reporter
COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) -Lexington farm HW Group LLC - the holding entity and the Walter Rawl farming company - admitted Thursday to hiring 300 to 350 undocumented workers during a more than three-year period. Most of those workers were from Mexico and Guatemala.
In court Thursday, prosecutors said the hiring took place from November 2010 to May of 2013. The defendants admitted that and agreed to pay $1 million in fines, which is an amount characterized as the maximum. In addition to the fine, the company agreed to four years probation with regular monitoring to ensure compliance with proper hiring practices and to take part in the federal E-Verify program, even though agricultural businesses are not required to participate in that program.
The government with approval of Judge Joe Anderson will allow Rawl and HW Group to spend up to 18 months becoming fully compliant. That, the government says, is designed to minimize negative economic impact on the surrounding community, which could suffer if the company was forced to have only documented workers right away.
"The goal again is to ensure HW Group and its related entities follow the law," said Assistant U.S. Attorney James May. "And by shutting it down, there would be no justice done. This was at least through our analysis and investigation is the right answer."
Debbie Barbier, attorney for HW Group, said her clients agreed with the government in order to ease the burden of finding workers.
"To say it's difficult to get workers is an understatement," Barbier said. "And that's why the company is committed to working with the government to obtain more H2A visas and to ensure that we continue to provide fresh quality produce to the community."
The fine is considered the toughest imposed on an agricultural employer. Barbier pointed out the 90-plus years of contributions to the state by Rawl Farms, which include hundreds of thousands of pounds of produce donated to charitable causes every year.
http://www.wfxg.com/story/31560960/lexington-farm-company-to-pay-1m-fine-gets-probation-for-hiring-undocumented-workers
