• Garcia Labor Companies/ABX Air-On October 3, 2006, two temporary labor companies; as well as Maximo Garcia, the president of these companies and two of their corporate officers pleaded guilty in Ohio to conspiring to provide hundreds of illegal aliens to work for ABX Air, a national air cargo from Ohio. The three individuals pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to induce, aid and abet illegal aliens to reside or remain in the United States for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain. Garcia, the president of the Garcia Labor companies, agreed to forfeit $12 million as part of the plea agreement. He and the other two individuals face up to ten years in prison and a fine of $250,000. The Social Security Administration issued a number of notices in 2002, 2003, and 2004 in which hundreds of Hispanic workers employed by Garcia Labor were listed as using invalid Social Security account numbers. Despite such notices, Garcia Labor continued to employ these workers and took no substantive action to determine whether they were authorized to work in the United States. On April 26, 2006, ABX Air supervisor Douglas Steels pleaded guilty to charges of engaging in a pattern and practice of employing illegal aliens. He was sentenced to 6 months.

• Kentucky Limited Liability Corporations- On July 20, 2006, two corporations in Kentucky pleaded guilty to criminal charges of harboring illegal aliens and money laundering in connection with a scheme that provided illegal workers to Holiday Inn, Days Inn and other hotels in Kentucky. As part of the plea, Asha Ventures, LLC and Narayan, LLC agreed to pay $1.5 million cash in lieu of forfeiture and create internal compliance programs. Sentencing is scheduled for October. Through their agents, the companies employed numerous illegal aliens at hotels in London, KY who were often paid by check made payable to fictitious cleaning companies. The checks were then negotiated at the hotel upon whose account the check was drawn, and the aliens were then paid in cash. These payments were designed to disguise the nature, location, source or ownership of the proceeds.

• Fischer Homes and subcontractors—On July 7, 2006, Alfredo Medina-Mejia and Leopoldo Medina pleaded guilty to criminal charges of harboring illegal aliens. Both men worked as subcontractors that provided illegal workers to Fischer Homes construction sites in Kentucky. The guilty pleas resulted from raids conducted on May 9, 2006, in which ICE agents arrested four supervisors of Fischer Homes Inc. and 76 illegal alien workers at Fischer Homes construction sites in Kentucky. Fischer Homes is a leading builder of homes in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. The Fischer Homes managers are charged with aiding and abetting and harboring illegal aliens. On May 11, several contractors and contract firms that allegedly provided illegal workers for Fischer Homes construction sites were indicted on charges of harboring illegal aliens in connection with the scheme.

• Stucco Design—On May 2, 2006, Robert Porcisanu, the owner of an Indiana business that performed stucco-related services at construction sites in seven Midwest states was charged with money laundering, harboring illegal aliens, transporting illegal aliens, and false statements in connection with an illegal employment scheme. Porcisanu faces 40 years in prison. ICE is also seeking the forfeiture of $1.4 million. His firm was allegedly able to undercut the bids of contractors to perform work at construction sites by taking advantage of cheap labor costs from the use of illegal alien employees.

• IFCO Systems North America—On April 19,2006, ICE agents arrested seven current and former managers of IFCO Systems North America Inc, pursuant to criminal in Albany, New York, charging them with harboring illegal aliens for financial gain. ICE agents also apprehended 1,187 of the firm’s illegal alien employees during search warrants and consent searches executed at more than 40 IFCO locations nationwide. The arrests were the result of a year-long probe of IFCO, which determined that more than half of IFCO’s employees during 2005 had invalid or mismatched Social Security numbers. IFCO is the largest pallet services company in the United States, based in Houston, Texas.

• Kawasaki Sushi—On April 14, 2006, the operators of Baltimore’s best-known sushi restaurants agreed to forfeit more than $1 million and pleaded guilty to criminal chargers to commit alien harboring and money laundering in connection with an illegal alien employment scheme. The investigation found that the operators of the three Kawasaki restaurants in Baltimore exploited cheap, illegal labor to maximize profits in order to purchase new homes and luxury vehicles for themselves.

• HV Connect—On April 11, 2006, a federal indictment was unsealed in Ohio charging two temporary employment agencies and nine individuals with hiring and harboring illegal aliens; mail and wire fraud; and laundering approximately $5.3 million. The indictment alleged that HV Connect, Inc., and TN Job Service, Inc. provided hundreds of illegal alien employees to unwitting companies in Ohio by falsely representing that they were legal. The indictment also alleged that the owners of these agencies used the profits from this scheme build a new home and purchase jewelry for themselves.

Thomas Sowell

is not the issue. The problem I see, and why I wrote about Gunzburg, is that people should not be discouraged from speaking out. Bad things can happen in that sort of atmosphere.

You seem very invested in getting people to justify why they are protesting this or that. I won't call that kind of thinking bizare [sic] because that's rude. But it is certainly a kind favor to those who wish to stifle dissent.