Chicago Sun-Times article about the arrest of the men running the temporary employment agencies hiring illegal aliens.

This is in DuPage County, but it’s the first I’ve seen of Federal officials doing anything about businesses who hire illegal aliens.

The U.S. Attorney’s press release follows. You might also be interested in noting that the headline does not use the adjective “undocumented.”

OPERATORS OF BENSENVILLE TEMPORARY LABOR FIRMS CHARGED WITH
HIRING ILLEGAL ALIENS TO PROVIDE WORKERS IN SUBURBAN WAREHOUSES

CHICAGO — The president and office manager of two Bensenville businesses that supplied temporary workers to operators of suburban warehouses were charged today with unlawfully hiring dozens of illegal aliens to form their labor pool.

In addition to hiring illegal workers, the defendants paid their workers’ wages in cash and allegedly failed to deduct payroll taxes or other withholdings, according to a single-count criminal information filed in U.S. District Court, announced

• Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois;
• Gary J. Hartwig, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Investigations in Chicago; and
• James Vanderberg, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General in Chicago.

The defendants, Clinton Roy Perkins, and his son-in-law, Christopher J. Reindl, are the president and office manager, respectively, of Anna II, Inc., and Can Do It, Inc., both located at 801 Golf Lane, Bensenville.

Perkins, 65, of Wayne, and Reindl, 40, of St. Charles, were charged with one count of unlawfully hiring illegal aliens between October 2006 and October 2007 and will be arraigned at a later date in Federal Court in Chicago.

The charges also seek forfeiture from Perkins of $488,095, which was seized from various bank accounts as well as the Bensenville office.

“Employers in all industries and locations must comply with the nation’s immigration laws if we are to have an effective immigration enforcement strategy in this country. ICE is committed to ensuring that employers are held accountable for maintaining a legal workforce. The goal of our enforcement effort is two-fold — reduce the demand for illegal employment and protect job opportunities for the nation’s lawful workforce,”

Mr. Hartwig said.

Anna II/Can Do It provided both skilled and unskilled labor, including janitorial services, loading and unloading of freight packages and merchandise and installation and removal of structures inside warehouses to clients that operated warehouses in various suburbs. Both defendants allegedly failed to require aliens whom Perkins hired to provide documents establishing their immigration status or lawful right to work in the United States.

Perkins and Reindl directed low-level supervisory employees to transport aliens back and forth between locations near the aliens’ residences in Chicago and work sites in the suburbs, the charges allege. Both also allegedly provided bogus six-digit numbers — purporting to be the last six digits of the aliens’ Social Security numbers — to a company, knowing that their workers were in the country illegally and did not possess valid Social Security numbers.

The charges also allege that Perkins and Reindl repeatedly withdrew funds in the amount of $9,800 from bank accounts to pay their employees’ wages in cash, believing that withdrawing amounts less than $10,000 would avoid triggering the banks’ currency transaction reporting requirements.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher R. McFadden and Daniel May.

If convicted, unlawfully hiring illegal aliens carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The Court, however, would determine a reasonable sentence to be imposed under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.