Texas Company Caught Hiring Illegals. Now They're Down $5 Million
A company in Texas must forfeit $5.5 million to the government for hiring illegal aliens over a course of nine years, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.
Waste Management of Texas hired at least three managers who actively encouraged illegal aliens to work between 2003 to April 2012, according to a Wednesday news release from the attorney’s office. Many workers were hired or rehired with little to no regard to authorization status at the Houston location.
“The non-prosecution agreement requires Waste Management to continue its substantial remedial measures to address all past immigration violations and forfeit more than $5.5 million in proceeds gained from hiring an illegal workforce at the Afton [Street] location,” U.S. Attorney Ryan Patrick said in a statement.
At least 10 employees were fired because they did not have documentation in January 2012. The aliens, as a result, were told to steal identities of actual U.S. citizens or individuals with legal status in order to work at the company. Managers also gave terminated aliens identities of those legally in the U.S.
Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation over five years, where they found 16 illegal aliens working at the Houston location in April 2012.
Company records showed that nearly 100 employees either used identities that did not belong to them or were fraudulently documented, the news release said.
Three managers were indicted in May 2014 for attempting to encourage illegal immigration by employing illegal aliens to help waste trucks pick up garbage between 2008 and 2012.
The managers were convicted and given sentences between 27 to 94 months.
“The three employees involved intentionally broke pre-existing immigration compliance rules, in clear disregard of company policies,” Waste Management of Texas said in a statement to The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The organization has set up a compliance program to stop identity fraud and monitors staffing agencies hired to provide temporary workers.
Waste Management Inc. is North America’s largest residential recycler and renewable energy provider, serving over 21 million customers, according to the organization’s website. Its headquarters are in Houston.
HSI has been cracking down on worksite-related arrests surrounding immigration violations under the Trump administration. Officials detained 160 illegal immigrants who were hired to work at Load Trail, a trailer manufacturing company in Paris, Texas, on Tuesday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas did not immediately respond to TheDCNF’s request for comment.
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