ICE HSI Houston - Much Ado About Nothing

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is at work shooting fish in a barrel.  Two Houston manufacturers have agreed to forfeit $2 million each to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a result of investigations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). In exchange, the United States has agreed not to criminally prosecute the companies.

Wow, $2 million each! Here’s some breaking news: At $100,000+ a “special agent” that pays 40 agents salaries for a year.  That doesn’t include, training, travel, equipment such as take home vehicles.  How do we pay for the other 8,000 sitting around HSI offices all over the country?  You see, the agents don’t do these audits. HSI hired clerks to do this mundane work. 

Notice this case started in February 2011.  So as usual, it took a year to make one chicken shit administrative case. 

HSI audits found that Atrium Companies, owner of Houston-based Champion Window, and Advanced Containment Systems, Inc. (ACSI), a manufacturer of custom emergency response vehicles and trailers in south Houston, employed large numbers of undocumented workers over periods of more than 4 years. Both companies received no-match letters from Social Security Administration (SSA) indicating employee names and Social Security numbers did not match SSA records, but the firms failed to correct the problem, HSI said.

A February 2011 audit at ACSI found “egregiously suspect” identification documents, including some with misspelled agency names and at least one featuring the words “novelty item.” HSI concluded that from 2005 to 2009 roughly 44 percent of the company’s workforce was undocumented, resulting in about $2 million in wages paid to undocumented aliens.

A 2011 audit at Champion found that 269 of Champion’s 451-person workforce consisted of undocumented aliens. According to HSI, Champion managers falsely attested on I-9 forms that new hire documents appeared genuine. At HSI’s request, Champion terminated the undocumented workers. HSI concluded that Champion derived at least $2 million in revenue from sales of products and services provided by a predominantly illegal workforce from 2006 through 2010.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson said the agreements “require each company to continue their substantial remedial measures to address past immigration violations, the payment of a significant penalty and the company’s continued cooperation in an ongoing criminal investigation, while also taking into consideration the collateral consequences that a criminal prosecution would have on the company’s ongoing business concerns.”