Thread: MI: More illegal immigrants found at Thumb farm

More illegal immigrants found at Thumb farm
Friday, June 22, 2007
By TOM GILCHRIST
TIMES WRITER

BAD AXE - Police said federal agents on Thursday hauled away five more alleged illegal immigrants who worked at the same massive dairy farm where agents seized 13 alleged illegal immigrants in May.

Troopers from the Michigan State Police post at Bad Axe claim they discovered the five illegal Mexican workers after a sixth illegal immigrant - 17-year-old Jose Martin Lopez Cruz - drowned after jumping off the Port Austin breakwall into Lake Huron on Wednesday afternoon.

''Those five workers are being deported, and the sixth will be transported back to Mexico in a coffin,'' said Detective Sgt. Mark Krebs, who began investigating the farm of Johannes and Anthonia VerHaar in February.

''I thought the day we went out there, we arrested the only 13 people the VerHaars had who were working illegally,'' Krebs said. ''But I was told by these five immigrants on Wednesday that they came here within the last few weeks to the last couple months to fill the job openings at the VerHaar farm.

''That leads me to believe that because of what we did a few months ago - seizing those 13 workers - the call was made to have these guys come and take their place.''

Huron County Sheriff's Department divers said they recovered Cruz's body at 5:20 p.m. in 12 feet of water. A spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Department said police believe the death was an accident, though county Medical Examiner Dr. Richard Lockard ordered an autopsy on the victim's body.

Krebs said Johannes ''John'' VerHaar and his wife, Anthonia ''Anja'' VerHaar, are not U.S. citizens, but natives of the Netherlands who obtained temporary work visas to enter the United States.

The Times could not reach the VerHaars for comment. In recent weeks, the couple has declined comment about the investigation of their hiring practices, bookkeeping procedures or workers.

According to state police, the VerHaars claimed the 13 workers arrested in May were legal immigrants.

However, 11 of the 13 workers seized in the May 8 raid at the VerHaar farm - along Soper Road near Bad Axe - didn't challenge their deportation and received a free flight back to Mexico, according to Greg Palmore of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Two of the 13 still remain in ICE custody, awaiting hearings before an immigration judge, Palmore said on Wednesday.

Wednesday's arrest of the five alleged illegal immigrants marked the third arrest of a group of alleged illegal immigrants in Huron County in three months. In mid-March, police arrested 13 suspected illegal Mexican immigrants who had worked on the farm of Brian J. Ingram, along Grindstone Road near Port Austin.

The Times has been unable to confirm how many of Ingram's workers were deported to Mexico.

Palmore said on Thursday that ICE officials had not confirmed that the five men taken into custody on Wednesday worked for the VerHaars.

But Krebs said the men - ages 16, 20, 21, 23 and 33 - told him they would not fight deportation. State police used an interpreter to question the men, who didn't speak English.

''They told me they had no green cards (permitting them to work in the U.S.), they had no Social Security numbers and they didn't want a hearing before an immigration judge,'' Krebs said.

But Krebs said a pay stub possessed by one of the five workers showed - at least on paper - that the VerHaars had withheld Social Security taxes in the man's name.

''It will be up to the VerHaars to explain why these workers ended up on their farm again without any paperwork proving they were here legally,'' Krebs said. ''It's a U.S. immigration violation - a federal crime - to hire illegal workers.''

Krebs said it's the job of federal prosecutors, working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to determine whether to bring criminal charges in the case.

Palmore said ICE - the Department of Homeland Security's investigative agency - continues probing the VerHaar farm operation. He declined further comment about the investigation.

''It's a crime if the farm's workers are illegal, but there are ways employers can go about securing the appropriate documents for such individuals to become employed,'' Palmore said.

Krebs said one of the five Mexicans arrested by Trooper Dan Thompson on Wednesday - a 16-year-old - told state police he paid someone 17,000 Mexican pesos - $1,571 American dollars - to smuggle him from Reynosa, Mexico, into the United States.

According to Krebs, the 16-year-old said that once he made it into the U.S., he paid $1,100 American dollars to his ''coyote'' - the person who took him to his job at the VerHaar farm.

Krebs said a 33-year-old Mexican worker arrested following Wednesday's drowning told police he paid $3,000 to the coyote to transport him to his job with the VerHaars.

''They pay substantial amounts of money for the coyote to get them to the VerHaar farm, but they said they couldn't remember the name of the guy who brought them here, or what type of vehicle brought them to Michigan,'' Krebs said.

- Tom Gilchrist covers the Thumb for The Times. He can be reached at (989) 894-9649 or by e-mail at: tgilchrist@bc-times.com.

©2007 Bay City Times
© 2007 Michigan Live. All Rights Reserved.


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Krebs said Johannes ''John'' VerHaar and his wife, Anthonia ''Anja'' VerHaar, are not U.S. citizens, but natives of the Netherlands who obtained temporary work visas to enter the United States.

Looks like it's time to put a couple VerHaar's on a slow boat to the Netherlands. If they can't play by the rules, deport them.

Originally Posted by MW

Krebs said Johannes ''John'' VerHaar and his wife, Anthonia ''Anja'' VerHaar, are not U.S. citizens, but natives of the Netherlands who obtained temporary work visas to enter the United States.

Looks like it's time to put a couple VerHaar's on a slow boat to the Netherlands. If they can't play by the rules, deport them.

Plus they are apparently farming thumbs. What kind of sick practice is that?!?

Yep, it's time to send the VerHaars back home too.

A temporary work visa is not a license to break our laws. We might also want to question these two about who they contact to order up a new set of illegals. Who knows, we might find the source of a human trafficiing pipeline.

Once we get the fence built and the borders secured, we need to start rounding up illegal aliens from across the seas. I read once that there may be as many as 2 million illegal aliens here from Europe.

SamLowrey wrote:

Plus they are apparently farming thumbs. What kind of sick practice is that?!?

Caught again!
~~~
Raid nets dozen more immigrant arrests
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
LaNIA COLEMAN
THE SAGINAW NEWS
BAD AXE -- Operators of a Thumb dairy farm came under federal scrutiny after agents arrested a dozen illegal immigrants in a raid there.

About 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, 30 agents from the Detroit office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement executed search warrants at the Aquila Dairy Farm, 3201 Soper in Huron County's Colfax Township.

"Several of (the suspects) had been arrested before and were awaiting deportation hearings," said State Police Detective Sgt. Mark Krebs of the Bad Axe Post.

Krebs said federal officials had advised the farm owners, Johannes and Anthonia Verhaar, not to employ unregistered immigrants after a May 8 raid at the farm ended in the arrests of 12 employees, whom authorities deported to Mexico.

Police thought that was the end of it but said the June 20 drowning of a teenager in Saginaw Bay cast doubt on that assumption.

Jose Martin Lopez Cruz, 17, drowned after he and two friends jumped into the bay from the Port Austin breakwater. Two other men had accompanied the trio.

"When they were interviewed through an interpreter, four of them claimed to be employed at the Verhaar dairy farm and the other one claimed he was just living in the house the Verhaars supplied for the farm help," Krebs said.

ICE agents took the men, 16 to 33, into custody and transferred them to Detroit, where authorities put them on an airplane back to Mexico.

"When ICE agents realized that these aliens had recently been employed by the Verhaars to take the place of the original 12 illegal aliens, they decided to come to Bad Axe and perform an unannounced search of the dairy farm," Krebs said.

Tuesday, authorities re-arrested five people, Krebs said.

Agents took seven others to Detroit for arraignment on charges that could result in their deportation.

The farm operators could face charges of harboring and employing unauthorized aliens, Krebs said.

The Verhaars are citizens of the Netherlands who have temporary visas to work in the United States, Krebs has said.

The farm sustains about 2,500 head of cattle. v

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Note: Added this to a very old post.
~~~

Mich. dairy farm indicted in immigration probe

Associated Press

October 6, 2010

BAD AXE, Mich. — The operators of a dairy farm in Michigan's Thumb region have been charged with conspiring to hire illegal immigrants.

An indictment unsealed Wednesday in federal court says Johannes Verhaar and his wife, Anthonia Verhaar, ignored warnings that they had workers with invalid Social Security numbers. Aquila Farms in Bad Axe was also indicted.

The farm has been under investigation for more than three years. The couple's lawyer, Matt Allen, declined to comment except to say the allegations will be addressed.

The indictment was returned Sept. 22 but sealed for two weeks because prosecutors feared people might flee or evidence could be destroyed.

www.chicagotribune.com