Thread: VT: IA from Brazil charged with IA hiring scheme for hotels

Police arrest Brazilian linked to local immigration scheme
Reformer.com

Friday, February 8
BRATTLEBORO -- Police arrested a Brazilian man in Boston Wednesday morning who was allegedly involved with an immigration scheme that took place at Brattleboro's Quality Inn and Hampton Inn.

Sanderson Pinheiro was charged with conspiracy to employ illegal aliens to work as a cleaning crew at the two hotels, which are controlled by Gurdeep Nagra, a Canadian citizen.

Nagra was arrested during an Oct. 24 sting conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In addition to conspiracy, Pinheiro and Nagra were charged with harboring aliens or shielding them from detection, according to the Vermont U.S. Attorney's office. Pinheiro was also charged with falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen after attempting to obtain a non-driver ID from the state of Vermont.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney James Gelber, Pinheiro ran the cleaning crew at Nagra's hotels.

If convicted of all counts, he could face five years for the conspiracy charge, 10 years for harboring the workers and three years for claiming to be a U.S. citizen.

legalatina - Hi there. Do you have a link to the story?
(Gotta have it if we are to keep it posted - thanks )

I think that most people forget two very important factors when thinking of illegal 'aliens' here in this country. First, to their credit, have you ever seen the FORMS and COSTS you must fill out and pay in order to become a US citizen? Even people who are educated in the English language find this a daunting task, and it takes years and a lot of money.

But second and most importantly, this company hired this crew with no last names, no background or criminal checks and then treated them like dogs, just to save money. They worked 7 days a week for years and were willing to do what most American Citizens were not willing to do. They are hard workers and thats hard to find. There is NO EXCUSE for a company to hire these workers, give them ACCESS KEYS TO ALL THE GUEST ROOMS, and not check out their backgrounds. I have personally experienced the trauma of being victimized by one of those immigrants, and detest the company first for their choices and second for the way they treated me afterwards. The illegal setup puts them in a position of looking out only for themselves, and this can not result in fair and legal treatment of anyone.

Please, please understand that these workers are desperate men, and the way that they are TREATED makes them angry and resentful on top of that. We have no clue as to their pasts and they all lie about their names. There is no way to track them or even to find them after they commit a crime, even a brutal one such as I was put through. When I was assaulted, the man was sent away immediately by the crew leader (NOT the company) and the whole thing swept under the rug. I was supposed to act like nothing had happened, and work my 70 hours a week like I was unaffected.

It comes down from the top; the illegal practices, the mistreatment of employees, legal or not legal, and the cover up afterward. I do not judge illegal immigrants on my one traumatic experience, however we need to question whether we want people that we can't track and can't hold accountable in our country. We have no criminal history no references, and its all about the money saved by corporations. That cannot be the right thing to do, all tax issues aside. Dangerous is dangerous, and someone with no name, no address and no known history is more dangerous than the rest.