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Quarry owners jailed
Brothers charged with hiring 20 illegallyLouie Gilot
El Paso Times
Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Two Montana Vista brothers who own a rock quarry were arrested late Monday and will be charged today with employing more than 20 undocumented immigrants.

In a rare case of employer enforcement by the authorities, Romulado Soto, 53, and Jose Cruz Soto, 41, both U.S. citizens and the owners of Soto Rock Hauling, will be charged with aiding and abetting and harboring undocumented immigrants for financial gain, officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

They are accused of hiring 26 Mexican men, who were found living in "horrible conditions" at the quarry on Montana Avenue and Gas Line Road, ICE spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa said.

"There was no running water, no electricity, and some were sleeping in wooden boxes," Zamarripa said.

The men were returned to Mexico, except for three who will testify against the Soto brothers, officials said.

The Soto brothers face up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. They are scheduled for an initial appearance in federal court this morning.

No cases of workplace enforcement have been prosecuted in the Western District of Texas in seven or eight years, said Shana Jones, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office.

Raids on undocumented immigrants are often high profile -- such as the 12 undocumented immigrants stopped last September on their way to work at a construction site inside White Sands Missile Range -- but since Sept. 11, 2001, they have become infrequent as resources have been redirected toward counter- terrorism.

During the past several years, the government's efforts to confront illegal hirings have been "a relatively low priority," according to a report released last August by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

Work-site arrests were down nationwide to 445 in 2003 from 2,849 in 1999. In 1999, 417 civil notices of intent to fine employers for hiring undocumented workers were issued, not counting civil settlements; in 2003, four were issued.

That may be changing soon as members of Congress who are working on immigration reform look for ways to step up enforcement.

HR 4437, passed by the House in December, would require the nation's 8.4 million employers to contact a nationwide verification system by phone or through the Internet to ensure that a job applicant's Social Security number matches one on file. Many undocumented immigrants reportedly use fake or borrowed Social Security numbers.

Business leaders have said that the government should focus on drafting a guest-worker program and come up with tamper-proof IDs.

The Senate is expected to resume its work on immigration reform next week.

Monday's raid on the far east El Paso quarry was conducted by El Paso County sheriff's deputies with Border Patrol agents after sheriffs' deputies developed a tip about the quarry at a temporary vehicle checkpoint they set up on Montana Avenue, ICE and Border Patrol officials said.

Also arrested at the quarry was Bernardo Gonzalez, age unavailable, who allegedly was picking up an undocumented immigrant to give him a ride to Fort Worth. Gonzalez was charged with transportation of an undocumented immigrant for financial gain.

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com; 546-6131