Tree Company to Pay $95 MILLION for Hiring Illegal Aliens

Tree Company to Pay Record Fine for Immigration Practices

A suburban Philadelphia company that trims trees around power lines throughout the United States will pay a record fine after pleading guilty in a scheme to employ people in the country illegally.

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Tree Company to Pay Record Fine for Immigration Practices

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By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press

A suburban Philadelphia tree-trimming company whose orange trucks are a familiar sight in communities throughout the United States will pay a record fine after pleading guilty in a scheme to employ thousands of people in the country illegally.

Asplundh Tree Expert Co. of Willow Grove, a utility contractor best known for pruning and removing trees around power lines, pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal criminal charge and was ordered to pay a total of $95 million. Prosecutors called it the largest monetary penalty ever levied in an immigration case.

The U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia said Asplundh employed thousands of unauthorized workers between 2010 and 2014, its top management remaining "willfully blind" while lower-level supervisors hired people they knew were in the country illegally. In some cases, the supervisors rehired workers who'd already been let go by the company due to their immigration status.

"This decentralized model tacitly perpetuated fraudulent hiring practices that, in turn, maximized productivity and profit," prosecutors said in a statement. "With a motivated workforce, including unauthorized aliens willing to be relocated and respond to weather-related events around the nation, Asplundh had crews which were easily mobilized that enabled them to dominate the market."


Asplundh is a 90-year-old, family-owned company that employs 30,000 workers in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The company, which holds many municipal, state and federal contracts, said it has reformed its hiring practices.

Investigators with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began auditing Asplundh in 2009 and found that it employed unauthorized workers. Asplundh dismissed the workers, but managers hired them back, accepting bogus driver's licenses, Social Security numbers, green cards and other fraudulent forms of identification, according to court documents.


Three Asplundh managers, including a vice president, already have pleaded guilty to felony charges in the case.

The company said that since learning of the federal investigation in 2015, it has hired compliance specialists, implemented a photo ID system that includes facial recognition software, investigated every complaint about unauthorized workers and taken other steps to eliminate the "practices of the past."

"We accept responsibility for the charges as outlined, and we apologize to our customers, associates and all other stakeholders for what has occurred," Chairman and CEO Scott Asplundh said in a statement on the company's website.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...tion-practices

They work all over the country including North Carolina. They work for major power companies and other utilities.

They should be fined and this looks like a big enough fine to teach them a lesson. Sure hope so. These are good jobs with a big wealthy company serving other huge even wealthier companies.

GOOD!!!

Montco-based Asplundh admits hiring undocumented immigrants, $95 million

Updated: SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 — 2:09 PM EDT

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Asplundh Tree Expert, Inc., the Montgomery County-based tree removal company, pleaded guilty Thursday to illegally employing undocumented immigrants and will pay $95 million, described by federal prosecutors as the largest payment ever for an immigration-related case.

The Willow Grove-based company admitted its managers hired and rehired undocumented immigrants that employees knew were ineligible to work in the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

After accepting the guilty plea in federal court in Philadelphia, U.S. District Judge John R. Padova sentenced the company to pay an $80 million forfeiture judgement. In addition, prosecutors said, Asplundh agreed to pay $15 million more to satisfy civil claims related to similar immigration-related allegations.

Asplundh removes brush and vegetation from electric and gas lines, with much of its work based on contracts with utilities including Peco, as well as other federal, state, and local governments. Founded in 1928, the company expanded over the decades and says it has 30,000 employees working across the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Neither Asplundh officials, nor the company attorney immediately responded to a request for comment.

The issue of undocumented workers in the landscaping industry is not new. Such immigrants account for 21 percent of the industry workforce, according to a 2014 analysis by the Pew Research Center. It estimated about 300,000 undocumented workers have landscaping jobs nationwide.

Prosecutors said that from 2010 to 2014 Asplundh used a hiring system that allowed top managers to remain “willfully blind” to the fact that undocumented immigrants were being hired with identification papers that supervisors knew false and fraudulent.

“This decentralized model tacitly perpetuated fraudulent hiring practices that, in turn, maximized productivity and profit,” prosecutors said in their news release.

Court documents show the hiring system was developed following a 2009 audit of Asplundh by Homeland Security Investigations, which revealed the company employed workers who were not eligible to work in the country. Asplundh fired at least 100 of them, according to the documents, but a regional manager, Larry Gauger, later instructed employees to hire some of them back by accepting fake forms of identification, including permanent resident cards or Social Security cards.

Gauger, the documents said, “knew that the dismissed employees within his region were being re-hired under different and false names and false identity documentation and encouraged his supervisors and general foreman to continue this practice.”

At the time, Gauger’s attorney, Arthur Donato Jr., declined to comment on the case, saying “Mr. Gauger is a good man. He has been with the company for a long time, and we’re going to be taking a look at everything and deciding how to proceed.”

But court records show Gauger has pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

Last year, the privately-held company paid a $187,718 penalty to the National Labor Relations Board in connection with violations at its Rocky Mountain, Virginia location. The case was settled informally.

In 2016, the company also paid the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) nearly $88,000 in penalties stemming from workplace safety and health violations.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/cr...-20170928.html

I have a relative that is a spervisor there and he had to learn some spanish to talk to workers. I remember him saying this a few years ago.

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the Montgomery County-based tree removal company, pleaded guilty Thursday to illegally employing undocumented immigrants and will pay $95 million, described by federal prosecutors as the largest payment ever for an immigration-related case.

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Not surprising considering Jeff Sessions is now the U.S. Attorney General. There has probably never been anyone in that position more serious about dealing with the illegal immigrant problem than Jeff Sessions.

Investigators with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began auditing Asplundh in 2009 and found that it employed unauthorized workers...

Good now come out to Pa we have 4 company that Hiring illegal Immigrant's . the name of the company are kappa Book in west Pittston On ann street . Our friend son apply for a job . & this illegal Immigrants guy came out & said you will not get a job . this company is only for illegal . that not right & the other company Is TJX also Pittston Pa . come out & see for your self.

I-9 E-Verify Immigration Compliance


Asplundh Manager & Supervisors Charged with hiring Undocumented Workers

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by BBuchanan
, 07-05-2017 at 04:49 PM (2385 Views)

By: Bruce Buchanan, Sebelist Buchanan Law, PLLC

http://discuss.ilw.com/attachment.ph...291349&thumb=1

Federal prosecutors charged three managers/supervisors of Asplundh Tree Expert Inc. with conspiring to hire undocumented workers using false identification and Social Security numbers. Asplundh, a nationwide company, removes brush and vegetation from electric and gas lines.

In 2009, Asplundh had their I-9 forms audited by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The ICE audit determined over 100 employees were undocumented; thus, Asplundh fired the employees.

After the ICE audit of Asplundh’s I-9 forms, prosecutors allege workers, fired for being undocumented, were rehired under false identities. Larry Gauger, a regional manager charged with conspiracy, "instructed management that it would have 'plausible deniability' as to the fraudulent hiring because even though the employees' Social Security numbers did not truly belong to these employees, the employees' proffered Social Security numbers would be positive matches in the E-Verify database." Jude Solis and Juan Rodriguez, supervisors for Asplundh, were also charged with conspiracy and fraud.

These indictments are clear proof that knowingly hiring undocumented workers can have criminal consequences. This is especially so when you assist the undocumented workers to obtain fake ID.

http://blogs.ilw.com/entry.php?9985-...nted%20Workers

This has been going on all across the country. Used to be tree removal/landscaping was a job for college students to earn income and for those experienced with that type of work which is seasonal in 4season areas. Let's go after the restaurants and construction companies next.

Thank you Jeff Sessions - we have been forced to withstand lawless ags in napolitano that Roy Moore said she should have been impeached, same goes for fast & furious & race baiting/divisor holder and asking for blood in the streets taped video, meet me on the tarmac to discuss grandchildren lynch. obama ruined everything he touched.

yes go after the restaurant's my friend work at this truck stop & it also hire illegal In Pittston Pa Also go they have restaurant's all over the town . come out & see. it on 315 . Pittston Pa 315 all the way to wilkes Barra.

I see Asplundh trucks around here, so obviously they are coast to coast. They should take the money from this fine and put it into enforcement. I am not so sure that a nationwide wall is the best idea ( probably not what they are going to do anyway) but improving the border monitoring would be welcome!

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Originally Posted by Captainron

I see Asplundh trucks around here, so obviously they are coast to coast. They should take the money from this fine and put it into enforcement. I am not so sure that a nationwide wall is the best idea ( probably not what they are going to do anyway) but improving the border monitoring would be welcome!

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The money goes into the Federal Fines and Forfeitures Account and goes for grants to city, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

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Originally Posted by Captainron

I see Asplundh trucks around here, so obviously they are coast to coast. They should take the money from this fine and put it into enforcement. I am not so sure that a nationwide wall is the best idea ( probably not what they are going to do anyway) but improving the border monitoring would be welcome!

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I think the original "wall" we were promised during Trump's campaign is a great idea and I support it 100%. However, as we now know, that specific "wall" seems to have shrunk and changed considerably since Trump's campaign promise.

My understanding is that they find out the major smuggling routes pretty quick. Do we want to spend billions to get every last one---or less billions and get 95 percent of them? We still have the interior CBP simultaneously.

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Originally Posted by Captainron

My understanding is that they find out the major smuggling routes pretty quick. Do we want to spend billions to get every last one---or less billions and get 95 percent of them? We still have the interior CBP simultaneously.

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The primary goal is to stop them from entering the country in the first place. A quality border fence (or wall) acts as a force muliplier, deterrent and funnel. Of course any wall is only as good as the men guarding and patroling it. Depending on interior enforcement is not enough. There is no single application that will provide solid border security. It will take a combination of things and a quality border fence is paramount (IMO).

This company is pretty much nationwide.

They are still working illegals - nothing has changed. That is a fact. I know.

We hear about the 'fine', but it will either be tied up in court for years or the government will settle for pennies on the dollar. Meanwhile they are still working illegals.

Depending on interior enforcement alone is not enough, that's true.

Unless, however, we do enforce interior laws, there is just too much incentive to find ways here.

Also, if not one illegal ever crossed the border again, unless we clean house, we are toast. They are here in too great a number, they are reproducing in two great a number.

Yes, we need to keep them from coming in, but a fence alone, or with guards unless they are the military will not deter them all.

The US is the promised land to them - and no wonder.

Federal utility gets $3.5m in tree firm’s immigration case