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Brownsville – Owners of a South Texas bakery accused of unlawful employment of non -documentary immigrants were also accommodating their business employees, a detail a federal judge ruled was sufficient to charge the couple to housing workers.
US Magistrates Judge Karen L. Betancourt ruled that there was a possible reason to believe that Leonardo Baez and Nora Alicia Avila-Guel violated the law by “sheltering foreigners” after testimony that they knew they employed workers who could not work Legally in the US and sheltered them in an apartment adjacent to their business.
Agents conducted a “job implementation action” at Bakery Abby in Los Fresnos and seized eight migrant workers on 12 February after a council that the agency received in December, according to Special Agent Dillon with investigations Homeland Security, which testified during a session preliminary hearing on Friday morning
Six of the immigrants were in the country with temporary visas who do not give them permission to work in the US is unclear whether they were in the US longer than their permitted visas, but immigration officials then have removed them in Mexico.
The adviser informed the agency that business owners were accommodating and hiring immigrants without salary, Duke said. However, when agents questioned one employee, he said he received $ 8 an hour.
During the business raid – which Also included Cafe Dulce’s – agents also searched an apartment located on the side of the building where some of the employees lived. Duke described the apartment as a rectangular room with six beds along the wall, two bathrooms and no kitchen. The windows were covered with cardboard.
Agents also questioned the couple, who allegedly admitted that they knew their employees were not authorized to work in the US
“They stated that they knew this would happen one day,” Duke said.
Lawyers representing the couple argued that securing housing for employees was no evidence that the couple were trying to hide them from the discovery and that there was no evidence that employees were not allowed to leave the apartment.
“There was no concealment,” said Sergio Villarreal, Baez’s lawyer, who argued that in order to find a possible cause for shelter he required a “shadow act”.
The judge disagreed and set a $ 100,000 bill with a $ 15,000 cash deposit for each.
After hearing, Avila-Guel’s lawyer, Jaime Diez, said the case was unusual and could cause fear among businesses that provide shelter for their employees.
“It’s a really scary thought,” Diez said. “All their life is now shattered.”
Baez and Avila-Guel have five children between the ages of 10 and 31.
Both are legal residents of the US and were transferred to the Rio Grande valley from Mexico more than 20 years ago, according to David Avila, brother of Avila-Guel.
He said the couple were diligent people and said his sister was living the American dream.
“That’s just a stain,” he said.
Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley has been partially supported by South Texas Methodist Health Ministries, Inc.
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