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.