All Steel Carports Inc., a steel manufacturing company, has been ordered to forfeit $6 million after it admitted to federal investigators that it had run a pipeline for “dozens” of illegal aliens to work for the company.
The Washington Times reports that the corporation told the court in a sentencing memo that “owner Ignacio Chavez, who came to the U.S illegally himself before winning legal residency in 2009, didn’t consider hiring illegal immigrants to be a big deal,” the company’s lawyers wrote, “In his culture laws are there but few respect them.”
The Times also reports that the Biden Administration cut Mr. Chavez several major breaks, dropping the human smuggling and money laundering charges leveed against the company by the Trump Administration.
According to investigators, All Steel Inc. was “built on an illegal workforce.” Investigators noted that the workforce was predominantly made up of Mexican aliens smuggled to factory locations before being assigned fake or stolen identities.
The Federal investigators also pointed out that the company paid for the illegal alien’s driver’s licenses issued by California, which the investigators stated was more lenient about giving state documents to illegal aliens.
The Washington Times explains the extent that All Steel Inc. went to retain the cheap labor that allowed it to undercut competition who used U.S. workers:
At one point, after Homeland Security agents arrested an illegal immigrant employee, All Steel paid the $30,000 bond to free him from detention, then brought him back to work — despite the fact that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had now officially flagged him as being in the country illegally.
The company brushed off warnings from the Treasury Department that dozens of Social Security numbers it was submitting for its employees didn’t match up, investigators said.
However, the Federal government did not get involved until a whistleblower came forward and became an informant willing to record conversations with higher-ups in the company. Investigators added that Mr. Chaves was not the only one who knew the company was importing illegal workers - but the company’s vice president, who has prior federal fraud convictions, and the manager of human resources also had knowledge of the racket.
According to the article, All Steel Inc.’s lawyers complained that the company could barely survive the $6 million forfeiture and has ended a section of its work where it claimed most of the illegal aliens worked. The forfeitures accounted for nearly half of the company’s assets, and All Steel Inc. is now on three-year probation with the DHS.
For the complete story, please visit The Washington Times.
