illegal aliens

Broetje Orchards of Washington, one of the country’s largest apple growers, has agreed to pay a $2.25 million fine for hiring illegal immigrants. The fine is one of the largest ever levied against an agricultural concern, according to government officials who announced it Thursday.

A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that the civil penalty was levied against Broetje for employing nearly 950 people who weren’t authorized to work in the U.S...

“All businesses are expected to comply with the law and to ensure the information provided on a form I-9 (employment form) is accurate,” said ICE Director Sarah R. Saldaña.

...acknowledges auditors found that it continued to employ unauthorized workers after being advised by ICE those employees didn’t have permission to work in the U.S.

Broetje is the largest employer in Walla Walla County in Eastern Washington. It has more than 1,000 permanent employees and up to 2,800 during harvest season. Many of them live on the company’s vast grounds in Prescott, Wash., where the grower built housing, school and a day care center for workers.

When the concern first came under scrutiny years ago, it already had begun to train and employ low-skilled workers in the U.S. legally, many of them refugees from Africa and Asia. But its founders, Ralph and Cheryl Broetje, said in an interview at the time that agriculture suffered from a severe labor shortage and that they hoped an overhaul of the country’s immigration system would enable their business to retain experienced workers.

They declined to comment Thursday. But a statement attributed to company management said: “We are pleased to put this process behind us and to get back the business of growing fruit. It said the case ”highlights what is clearly a dysfunctional and broken immigration system.”
  Read more about Washington State Fruit Grower Hit With $2.25 Million Immigration Fine

Kevin Landers shook his head as a federal judge sided with a prosecutor and ordered he remain in jail pending a trial on cocaine possession charges...

Landers had been at the Multnomah County Detention Center since he was arrested Dec. 5. Prosecutors say police found him driving a van with nearly 100 pounds of cocaine that he picked up in Portland and planned to transport back to his native Canada.

"I'm a good man," Landers, 51, told Acosta in U.S. District Court...

...But he was also a "good cocaine smuggler" with no ties to Oregon and plenty of incentive to flee back across the border to his wife and six children and escape a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, Keirn said.

... he was a stay-at-home dad who had been driving cocaine from the U.S. into Canada 20 times in the last 12 months and was paid $10,000 each time...

...Landers was leaving a Red Lion hotel near the Portland International Airport in December, when he committed a traffic violation...

A police drug dog detected narcotics in Landers' Nissan Quest and four duffle bags with a total of 42 kilograms of cocaine were found in a hidden compartment in the back of the van, the affidavit said. The drugs were estimated to have a value of $1.3 million...

Acosta agreed that Landers was a flight risk and a possible community risk if he was released. The judge ordered he remain detained on a charge of possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Landers pleaded not guilty..
  Read more about Canadian admits trying to smuggle 100 pounds of cocaine from Portland to Canada

The case of a father and son jailed for two years to secure their testimony in an Oregon murder trial has prompted legislation to prevent any witness from enduring the same fate.

Lawmakers this week passed House Bill 2316 authorizing a judge to order a pretrial deposition for material witnesses. Next, it heads to the Senate for approval.

With this bill, said Rep. Jeff Barker, D-Aloha, legislators hope pretrial depositions – which would emulate live courtroom testimony – would allow a witness to go free instead of waiting in jail to appear at trial.

The bill is inspired by what happened in a recent Hillsboro murder case: Benito Vasquez-Hernandez and his son, Moises Vasquez-Santiago, were held to testify against one of his other sons, defendant Eloy Vasquez-Santiago. The witnesses spent two years in jail before they were brought to court for pretrial depositions.

... Moises Vasquez-Santiago, who suffered a psychotic break in jail and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, testified then and was released after 727 days in custody.

But Benito Vasquez-Hernandez insisted he was innocent and wouldn't answer questions...

The 58-year-old father remained in lockup for another six months until earlier this spring, when he came to court on his 905th day in custody and testified that he knew nothing about the case. The judge then ordered his release. Legal experts knew of no other witness jailed for so long.

The bill would give a judge the authority to order a pretrial deposition for a material witness...

Under the proposed law, either a prosecutor or defense attorney could petition the judge to order a deposition, or the judge could order it without a request.

The bill wouldn't require taking a deposition or limit the length of time a witness could be held. But if petitioned, the judge would have 30 days to decide whether to order a deposition.

"I think this will solve the problem," Barker said.

In the Hillsboro case, Eloy Vasquez-Santiago was found guilty and sentenced to prison for the murder of 55-year-old Maria Bolanos-Rivera, a mother of six who worked in the local berry fields. Read more about Case of father jailed for 905 days as witness in murder case prompts legislation

YAKIMA, Wash. — A federal appeals court upholding an injunction against the President Barack Obama’s controversial executive action on immigration probably means it is dead for the remainder of his term in office, a farm labor leader says.

“It is my understanding the administration probably will appeal and that could take a couple of years,” said Mike Gempler, executive director of Washington Growers League, a non-partisan association representing agricultural employers on labor issues.

The executive action would defer deportation and provide temporary legal work status for about 5 million of an estimated 12 million people in the U.S. illegally, was scheduled to take effect in May. Many of the illegal immigrants are farmworkers.

On Feb. 16, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, in Texas, ruled in favor of 26 states that sued to overturn the executive order and issued an injunction stopping the programs on grounds that they were implemented without following an administrative procedures act requiring a public comment period.

The injunction was appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. A three-judge panel of that court upheld the injunction on May 26.

“In my opinion, it was productive to push the envelope a little on this,” Gempler said. “It was provocative and made people think and hopefully would trigger action in Congress.”

Comprehensive immigration reform by Congress seems unlikely anytime soon but it is needed because an executive action “is a very temporary measure,” Gempler said.

Tom Roach, a Pasco, Wash., immigration attorney, could not be reached for comment. Previously, he has estimated 90,000 to 100,000 people in Central Washington and northeastern Oregon are eligible under the executive action for Deferred Action for Parents of Americans — known as DAPA — or an expanded 2014 version of the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — called DACA.

Thousands of illegal immigrants are eligible in Idaho and California, he said.

Gempler said he believes there’s always been public support for DACA because it makes sense to not deport people who have grown up in the U.S.

“For DAPA, I don’t get a sense that there’s a lot of support in the general public or in the farm community necessarily, but I think there is in the immigrant community,” he said.

United Farm Workers, Keene, Calif., issued a news release denouncing the court ruling. UFW was among more than 100 organizations filing friend of the court briefs and issuing statements in support of the president’s action. UFW expressed optimism that Obama’s executive order eventually will prevail and said it will continue to help prepare illegals for administrative relief under DAPA and DACA.

OneAmerica, a Seattle immigration group, issued a statement calling the decision “disappointing” and saying it believes eventually millions will be given the chance to apply for DAPA and DACA.

Presente.org, a Latino power group, issued a statement saying the court ruling “is part of a continuing and well-orchestrated Republican attack on Latinos and immigrants.”
  Read more about Obama immigration action may be dead, labor leader says

A federal appeals court has refused to lift a temporary hold on President Obama's executive action that could shield millions of immigrants from deportation....

  Read more about Appeals court refuses to lift hold on Obama immigration action

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks succeeded Thursday in his quest to keep certain immigrants from serving in the military.

His amendment to strike language from the defense spending bill that would clear the way for  individuals who have been granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to serve in the military.

Brooks vowed to fight the amendment to the spending bill once it passed out of the House Armed Services Committee last month.

The Brooks amendment to strike the language added by U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego passed the full House on a 221-202 vote.

Brooks opposed the Gallego amendment because the Alabama Congressman said it would take military jobs from Americans at a time when the armed services are in a downsizing mode.

Three chairs of House committees – including U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry of the Armed Services Committee – spoke on the House floor in favor of Brooks' amendment.

"Today is a great victory for Americans and lawful immigrants who wish to serve America in our Armed Forces," Brooks said in a statement following the vote. "I asked my colleagues to consider how much American families are struggling in an anemic job and wage market and how much the Gallego amendment makes job and income prospects for Americans even worse.

"It makes no sense to me that, at the same time the Army is downsizing and issuing pink slips to American soldiers serving in Afghanistan, there are Congressmen who seek to help illegal aliens deprive American citizens and lawful immigrants of military service opportunities."

Brooks, an immigration hardliner, has emerged in recent weeks as a House leader against the amendment. In a final lobbying effort Thursday, Brooks sent letters to his 434 colleagues in the House seeking their support.

"I'm pleased the House chose to stand up for American citizens and protect the Constitutional duty of Congress to set immigration law," Brooks said. Today's vote was the fourth rejection of the President's unconstitutional DACA program, with Republicans overwhelming standing up for the will of the American people and the citizens and lawful immigrants who want to serve our country."
  Read more about Rep. Mo Brooks amendment passes; keeps DREAMers out of military

Two men caught with 30 pounds of methamphetamine during a traffic stop in March were sentenced to 7½ years in prison this week.

On March 30, Portland police began following a truck driven by Juan Hernandez-Sanchez and stopped the vehicle....near Clackamas Town Center.

Hernandez-Sanchez gave police permission to search the vehicle...

The dog, Nikko, indicated the presence of drugs in a large toolbox in the truck bed.

There, officers found 30 pounds of meth and a pound of heroin; they arrested Hernandez, a Northeast Portland resident, and Canela-Perez, a transient. Police estimated the value of the narcotics at $1.3 million.

Hernandez-Sanchez and Canela-Perez quickly reached a plea agreement...

Hernandez-Sanchez and Canela-Perez are not U.S. citizens and face deportation to Mexico after they complete their sentences.

  Read more about Men caught with meth, heroin worth $1.3 million get 7 years in prison, face deportation to Mexico

The U.S. government says it "erroneously" awarded three-year work permits to 2,000 people under President Barack Obama's executive immigration action after a judge had put the plan on hold....by a Feb. 16 injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Texas.

Hanen had criticized Justice Department lawyers after they acknowledged that more than 108,000 people had received three-year deportation reprieves as well as work permits when the lawyers had previously told the judge that no action would be taken prior to the injunction.

A decision from an appeals court is pending on whether to lift the injunction.
  Read more about US: Work Permits Issued After Immigration Action Delayed