Thread: Worksite enforcement debate flares

Jan. 11, 2008, 1:34AM
Worksite enforcement debate flares
Landscaper's arrest spurs strong pro, con feelings
By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle


Robert Camp leaves the Bob Casey Federal Courthouse Wednesday in Houston. The federal complaint alleges that Camp, through his company Camp Landscaping, hired Juan Quintero knowing that he had been deported previously for a crime and was back in the country illegally.

A HISTORY OF AIDING WORKER

• August 1998: Robert Camp posts a $10,000 cash bond for Juan Leonardo Quintero, who was charged with indecency with a child.
• March 3, 1999: Quintero is convicted of a sexual offense with a minor.

• May 7, 1999: Quintero is deported from the U.S.

• Nov. 26, 1999: Quintero boards a Southwest Airlines flight from Phoenix to Houston after hiring a smuggler to re-enter the U.S. through Arizona. Quintero's wife tells investigators her husband told her Camp purchased the ticket.

• Sept. 21, 2006: Quintero is accused of fatally shooting Houston police officer Rodney Johnson in the head during a traffic stop in which Quintero was driving a company truck owned by Camp. Quintero is later charged with capital murder.

• Oct. 4, 2006: ICE agents receive information alleging that Camp, of Camp Landscaping, knowingly employed Quintero in violation of federal law.

Source: ICE affidavit by Senior Special Agent Gary Renick

The high-profile harboring case against a landscaping company owner who employed an illegal immigrant charged with murder in the slaying of a Houston police officer has heated up the debate over worksite enforcement.

Prosecutors hailed the arrest of owner Robert L. Camp as an example of the consequences of harboring or employing illegal immigrants, but some Houston construction officials say the arrest won't deter the hiring of undocumented workers.

Other critics questioned the fairness of linking the officer's slaying with Camp's role in allegedly harboring the illegal immigrant accused of killing him. The case raises complicated questions of how much responsibility should residents bear if they hire or help an illegal immigrant who later commits a serious crime.

Camp, 47, of Deer Park, faces up to 10 years in prison on charges of harboring longtime employee Juan Leonardo Quintero and encouraging him to return unlawfully to Houston following his 1999 deportation. The Mexican citizen faces capital murder charges, allegedly gunning down Houston police officer Rodney Johnson in September 2006, after the officer stopped him for a traffic violation while driving one of Camp's company trucks.

Camp's lawyer, Jimmy Ardoin, declined to comment Thursday, and has advised his client to do the same.

Meanwhile, a leader in Houston's construction industry and a union official doubted the case would curtail the hiring of undocumented workers.

''I don't think it's going to slow down somebody hiring a day laborer, but it will have an effect if someone has a previous deportation," said Robert Wilkinson, executive director of the Independent Electrical Contractors Association in Houston, who stressed that his members do not condone violation of immigration laws.

Dale Wortham, president of the AFL-CIO council in Harris County, said the case was brought only because it involved an officer's death.

''Unfortunately, they took the time to go after this particular employer, and they should have been doing it all along," Wortham said.

Guidelines don't apply
Due to the agency's limited manpower and long list of law enforcement and customs duties, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said worksite enforcement cases are selected for their potential for widespread harm to the public.

''We look at places with critical infrastructure, where employees have access to sensitive areas," said Robert Rutt, the ICE special agent in charge in Houston. "Last year we executed criminal search warrants on a trash company, since the trucks have access to secure and sensitive facilities."

But in the Camp case the usual guidelines don't apply, Rutt said.

''A police officer died because someone hired an illegal alien," Rutt said. ''And when a person dies, a policeman, another public servant, or an average citizen, the normal prosecution thresholds are deviated from."

But there are those who say connecting the charge of harboring an illegal immigrant to Johnson's slaying is unfair.

''Trying to send the message that employers are somehow complicit in their employees' off-duty activities ... is classic over-reaching," said Michael A. Olivas, a veteran law professor at the University of Houston. ''This is a little like saying the Transportation Security Agen- cy, which had some undocumented workers on the payroll, would have been guilty if something had happened to an airline."

Olivas said it was ''absurd" to assign negligence to an employer.

Reaching a balance
Though Camp's prosecution was a high-profile case, Rutt said it does not signal a new crackdown on employers.

''ICE's focus is on national security and public safety, those are our top priorities," he said. ''We have limited resources, so we have to (reach) a balance."

Rutt said the agency concentrates on making cases against employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and not just rounding up workers.

''They are economic migrants, and if you take away their ability to get employment, the immigration problem will solve itself for the most part," he said. ''Our biggest weakness is not the porous border, but employers hiring illegal aliens."

Worksite arrests by ICE agents have risen dramatically, according to agency statistics, which show criminal arrests — mostly company managers and contractors — jumped from 176 in fiscal 2005 to 863 in fiscal 2007.

And administrative arrests of undocumented workers in worksite raids have increased from 1,116 in fiscal 2005 to 4,077 in fiscal 2007.

james.pinkerton@chron.com
83 comments to date:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5445645.html

The charge should not have been harboring. The charge should be accomplice in a homicide. The man was convicted and deported for child molestation. Camp knew the man was in the country after deportation because he paid for his return. That is complicity. Complicity in the illegal being here. Complicity in the illegal driving unlicensed and uninsured for the company. Complicity in hiring someone he knew could not work here. Complicity in homicide because he is the reason the illegal was here and able to kill the officer.

Officer Johnson's family should sue Camp for wrongful death and take everything Camp has.

That's right. He didn't just hire an illegal. He hired an illegal, bonded him out on a charge, rehired him after he returned to the US.

If he bought the ticket, he may very well have hired the coyote.

Yes, it should be much more than harboring and I hope this family has the best law firm in the country right now to sue the landscaper. That would be a case that could set a very good precedent.

I would like to see them get money, but it would mean so much to this country if one successful case like this could go through the courts.

Yes, it should be much more than harboring and I hope this family has the best law firm in the country right now to sue the landscaper. That would be a case that could set a very good precedent.

I would like to see them get money, but it would mean so much to this country if one successful case like this could go through the courts.

One big win would go a long way towards stopping the hiring of illegals whether they have been previously deported or not. Many companies pay to bring these people in. Charge them with human trafficking. If they pay their air/bus fare that is exactly what they are guilty of.

There has too be more here than meets the eye. Why would he pay to have this illegal smuggled back into the US plus a plane ride? There are plenty other illegals to take Quintero's place.

bordersoldier, you are right, it don't add up!


Guess who else should be locked up?
All those in governement who continue to let this go on including the supreme commander BUSH! Lets hold ALL of those accountable for this illegal invasion!


Sounds like dirt bag Camp might have been making more money off illegal drugs he was getting from the illegal. Why would someone pay tens of thousands of dollars to get an employee back when there are thousands more to replace him? Maybe what he couldn't replace is is drug connection?

''Trying to send the message that employers are somehow complicit in their employees' off-duty activities ... is classic over-reaching," said Michael A. Olivas, a veteran law professor at the University of Houston. ''This is a little like saying the Transportation Security Agen- cy, which had some undocumented workers on the payroll, would have been guilty if something had happened to an airline."

He knew this guy was a child molester and still helped him come back here (to molest more children?). Would Michael Olivas think he was "guilty" if another child was hurt? He should have expected that to happen sooner or later. People who are child molesters don't usually stop molesting. This illegal didn't get jailed after being found guilty, he was just deported. He didn't get counseling. And why was some illegal landscaper worth the $10,000 bond to his employer? He must have been doing more than landscaping.