MS - Ridgeland business owner sentenced for harboring illegal aliens
Published: 5:10 pm
Updated: 5:14 pm
FOX40tv.com
Jackson, Miss. - Paul Love, 58, of Ridgeland, Mississippi, was sentenced today to 21 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for harboring illegal alien employees at his business, Love Irrigation, Inc., in Ridgeland, announced U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis and Raymond R. Parmer, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (“ICE”) Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) in New Orleans, Louisiana. U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate also ordered Love to pay a $5,000.00 fine.
On October 18, 2011, Paul Love, his wife Barbara Love, and their company Love Irrigation, Inc., were charged in a multi-count indictment stemming from their employment of illegal aliens. Love Irrigation is a lawn irrigation, sprinkler installation, and landscaping company located in Ridgeland, Mississippi. From 2003 through 2010, the defendants employed, continued to employ and even re-hired illegal aliens, despite being told by certain aliens that they were illegal. In May 2008, ICE visited Love Irrigation and instructed defendants Paul and Barbara Love on how to properly complete Forms I-9, verify Social Security Numbers, and participate in the E-Verify program. Afterwards, ICE reviewed Love Irrigation's Forms I-9 and informed Paul and Barbara Love that seven employees were illegal and must be terminated. Rather than terminate these illegal alien employees, Love Irrigation, Paul Love and Barbara Love continued to employ them and took affirmative steps to hide such illegal alien employees from detection. The defendants thereafter classified these illegal alien employees as "contract labor" and ceased reporting them to the Mississippi Department of Employment Security ("MDES") as required by law. Further, the defendants stopped paying these illegal alien employees in check at the company offices and began paying them in cash at off-site locations. Crew supervisors were also instructed to pick up and drop off these illegal alien employees at covert locations other than the company offices in Ridgeland.
In 2010, Love Irrigation began resubmitting the names of its illegal alien employees to MDES, using the exact same names and Social Security numbers for some but using different Social Security numbers for others previously identified as illegal by ICE in 2008. Paul and Barbara Love also began falsifying Forms I-9 in 2010, listing false employment start dates for various illegal alien employees, while listing Social Security numbers different from those used by the same illegal alien employees on Forms I-9 in the past and previously reported to the Mississippi Department of Employment Security. ICE executed a criminal search warrant on Love Irrigation's offices in Ridgeland in July, 2010.
Love Irrigation, Inc. entered into an agreement with the United States on May 21, 2012, whereby Love Irrigation admitted to violating federal criminal immigration laws, agreed to numerous remedial and compliance measures in connection with hiring and employing legal workers, and agreed to pay $515,109.67 in penalties and fines. In return, the United States agreed to defer prosecution of the company for three years and to ultimately dismiss the charges after the three-year period if the company has fully satisfied the terms of the agreement.
Barbara Love pled guilty on May 29, 2012, to a criminal information charging her with hiring and continuing to employ illegal aliens. She was subsequently sentenced on August 9, 2012, by U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda R. Anderson to serve a 3 year term of probation with the first 30 days served under house arrest and to pay a $15,000.00 fine. The United States subsequently dismissed the charges pending against her in the October 2011 indictment.
“Enforcement of our immigration laws is essential to the national and economic security of our nation,” said Gregory K. Davis, U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi. “This office will continue to bring to justice those employers who seek to profit through a business model that incorporates illegal workers at the expense of hard-working Americans who are eager to work.”
“The defendants sought to gain a competitive advantage for their business by willfully circumventing the nation’s immigration laws,” said Raymond R. Parmer Jr., special agent in charge of HSI New Orleans. “HSI aggressively investigates unscrupulous employers who deny Americans jobs in order to illegally pad their bottom lines.” Parmer oversees HSI activities in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee.
U.S. Attorney Davis commended the investigative efforts of the Special Agents of ICE Department of Homeland Security Investigations. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mike Hurst.
Ridgeland business owner sentenced for harboring illegal aliens : powered by Fox 40 WDBD, Jackson, Miss.
