Thread: Update Fischer Homes case

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9 Illegal Immigrants Plead Guilty After Raid

June 13, 2006, 01:13 PM EDT

(COVINGTON, Ky.) -- Nine immigrants arrested when federal authorities raided Fischer Homes construction sites in northern Kentucky have pleaded guilty to entering the country illegally.

The men entered their pleas Monday in U.S. District Court in Covington and were sentenced with time served _ about three weeks. They were among six dozen Hispanic workers rounded up in a May 9 raid by immigration officials in Boone County.

Deportations for eight of those arrested was delayed because prosecutors want to use them as material witnesses in the case against Robert Pratt, a Fischer contractor.

Pratt, of Franklin, Tenn., is charged with knowingly hiring the undocumented workers at below-market pay. He has pleaded not guilty.

In previously filed court documents, federal investigators claim that two Pratt companies served as a buffer between undocumented Hispanics and Fort Mitchell-based Fischer Homes.

Four supervisors at Fischer are among those indicted in the case. Prosecutors allege the four spoke directly with Pratt about projects involving the Hispanic workers.

Fischer officials have denied any wrongdoing, and the supervisors have all pleaded not guilty to charges against them.

The nine immigrants who pleaded guilty Monday are Jose Luis Beltran-Ortiz, Alvaro Moran-Moran, Omar Resendez-Hernandez, Alfredo Alarcon-Pacheco, Gerraldo Lopez-Tovar, Gustavo Villeda-Ramirez, Hugo Consino-Lara and Aguilou Mireles-Resendez.

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"were sentenced with time served " You want to make a bet that our Govt. has been negotiating with them to let them apply for legal status and telling them when they deport them they won't be considered felons that aren't welcome back in the U.S.?