Shipley president says business will comply with immigration laws

By MARY FLOOD Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Sept. 5, 2008, 5:20PM

After pleading guilty to conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants on behalf of the company his grandfather founded, Lawrence Shipley III promised Friday that his family doughnut company will continue to evolve.

Shipley, the current president of Houston-based regional baker Shipley Do-Nuts, pleaded guilty last week to his own similar criminal charge and Friday to the separate charge against the corporation.

"This 72-year-old company is absolutely committed to immigration compliance in its hiring practices," Shipley said. Though he said he didn't hire the two dozen undocumented workers the government found at a Shipley Do-Nut plant in an April raid, his father did and he kept the status quo. "I've been accountable since 2005."

Shipley said that if his late father, who he credited with housing and taking care of his workers, were alive to see this prosecution,"I'm sure he'd just say 'That's life in the big city.'"

Shipley personally pleaded guilty last week to a misdemeanor charge of employing undocumented workers and was put on six months probation and ordered to pay a $6,000 fine.

On Friday, Jimmy Rivera, a former Shipley Do-Nuts warehouse manager; Julian Garcia, the current warehouse manager; and Christopher Halsey, the current warehouse supervisor, all pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of hiring illegal immigrants. Each man was sentenced to six months probation and fined between $1,000 and $2,000.

Dennis Cain, Shipley's attorney, said it's true that for the last half century many businesses and individuals in Texas and other border states have benefited from the labors of workers here illegally. And, he said, this prosecution happened to Shipley Do-Nuts "because it's the law" and because Shipley Do-Nuts was targeted by immigration officials after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission began investigating allegations of discrimination and harassment of workers at Shipley Do-Nuts. The commission sued Shipley Do-Nuts and settled that case.

The company is scheduled to be sentenced on the criminal charge in December by U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. It faces a maximum fine of $500,000 and up to five years probation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan McConnell told the judge Friday that in its plea deal with the government, the company agreed to improve its immigration compliance and to pay $1.3 million to the government in lieu of forfeiting company-owned homes where undocumented workers lived.

U.S. Attorney Donald DeGabrielle has promised a continued crackdown on businesses that provide a magnet for immigrants to enter the country illegally.
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