Thread: NC - Kinston businessman sentenced for employing an illegal alien

Kinston businessman sentenced for employing an illegal alien

By Free Press staff
Posted Nov 15, 2018 at 3:37 PM

A 52-year-old Kinston businessman was sentenced Thursday to a year of probation after pleading guilty to unlawfully employing an illegal alien.

Robert B. Jernigan, vice president of House Fitters, Inc.’s of Kinston by U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III after his guilty plea. Jernigan was also ordered to forfeit $9,649 in connection with the criminal conduct, according to Robert J. Higdon, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

According to court records, Jernigan, in his role as House Fitters, Inc.’s vice president, hired Oscar Obdulio Lopez-Garcia, a previously deported alien from Guatemala, knowing Lopez-Garcia was not authorized to undertake employment in the United States.


In order to avoid detection, Jernigan and House Fitters, Inc. allowed Lopez-Garcia to reside in company property and reported Lopez-Garcia’s wages to the North Carolina Employment Security Commission under a fictitious name, court records show.

On Sep. 7, Lopez-Garcia pleaded guilty in federal court to illegal reentry into the United States after having been deported on three occasions subsequent to a conviction for sale of a controlled substance, records show.
Lopez-Garcia’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for the December 2018 term of court.

The case was investigated under the newly created framework of the Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force in the Eastern District of North Carolina and is led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement - Homeland Security investigations,

and assisted by Enforcement Removal Operations, and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, among other agencies. The investigation, as to the unlawful employment of unauthorized aliens, is ongoing.

https://www.kinston.com/news/2018111...-illegal-alien

Why probation? Throw them in the slammer for 6 months!

Send the message loud and clear...fire your illegal aliens or go to jail!