Business owners at criminal risk ...

Over a span of nine days — Feb. 12 through Feb. 21 — Homeland Security/ICE agents paid a visit to two local businesses (McAllen and Los Fresnos) and took away workers who allegedly have no right to either reside or work in the U.S.

In the Los Fresnos case, federal agents also took the business owners of Abby’s Bakery and Dulce’s Cafe, a married couple who run the local mom-and-pop, into federal custody and charged them with harboring illegal aliens, AKA, undocumented immigrants. A federal magistrate set their bonds, each, at $100,000, which required two cash deposits of $15K.

The “harboring” criminal charges are relatively rare, but as the Los Fresnos case shows, expensive to navigate. Plus, a federal charge is going to up the ante to defend compared to a state case, and how many defendants want to risk a jury trial?

That’s perhaps part of the reason why in the U.S. today, 90-95 percent of all federal white-collar criminal cases are resolved through plea agreements, even though each plea has to include an admission of guilt. (Source: U.S. DOJ.)

All told, bad news for the couple. According to the criminal complaint, the husband has already said he knew the workers were in the country illegally.

Meanwhile, the Brownsville attorney representing the couple, Sergio Villarreal, told one local news outlet that ICE is setting a (bad) precedent in South Texas, and he feels it’s a “political raid.” (Source: MyRGV.com.)

The Risk

No matter if an employer simply employs illegal labor or harbors them (provides them a place to sleep, etc.), both are federal crimes, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The potential liabilities?

Employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens can face federal criminal charges, which can range from six months to 10 years, for violating 8 U.S.C. §1324a.

Criminal penalties

Hiring a pattern of unauthorized aliens: Up to six months in prison and/or fines for each unauthorized alien.

Hiring at least 10 unauthorized aliens in a year: Up to five years in prison, fines, or both.

Human trafficking, smuggling, or harboring: Felony charges for bringing, transporting, concealing, or harboring unauthorized aliens may include up to five years in prison and/or fines for making false statements or using fraudulent documents.

Harboring an alien: Up to five years in prison, and up to ten years for commercial purposes.

The Two Cases

So far in the McAllen case, which went down Feb. 21 at Suehay Tortilleria on South 23rd St., it appears that no criminal charges have yet been filed against the business owners, which doesn’t mean they’re not coming. Only time will tell.

The big difference between the two — in the Los Fresnos case, the undocumented workers were living on the property, located on Hwy. 100 across from the city park, while in the McAllen case, they apparently were not, since the business operates out of a retail strip center.

The eight undocumented workers/illegal immigrants, however, were removed from the business and taken into ICE custody.

Still, the thought of federal agents showing up at a local business location that employs undocumented immigrants has to send a chilling effect through the local business community in Hidalgo County, since so much is shored up by undocumented labor.

What percent?

The businesspeople contacted by The Advance, approximately half a dozen who have owned their own business for decades and have kept an eye out for what their competitors are doing, thought the number ranged from 50 percent all the way up to 75 percent.

The lowest guess came in at 40 percent.

Obviously, there are your business sectors that are presumably only going to hire so-called legal help. Financial institutions, medical facilities, law offices, etc., public entities.

When you get into the blue-collar trades, the tires shops, the mechanic shops, lawn services, handymen, what percentage of the many workers there have a legal right to work in the U.S.?

Does anyone know?

Probably not.

All of the business owners contacted by The Advance say they have never employed illegal labor, but they know for a fact that their competitors, some, do.

They don’t think it’s fair, but they’re not going to drop a dime to the Homeland Security tip line and turn in anyone.

What gets them more upset, they say, besides operating on a different level — they pay FICA, while others pay cash — is how many of the employees are treated based on what they have seen over the years. They’re often paid less, they say, and told to work back-breaking work that goes beyond the norm, simply because the owners know they have leverage over them.

Of course, the employees have leverage over the owners too.

Anyone can call the Homeland Security tip line — a competitor, a disgruntled employee.

These days, it’s almost impossible to get anyone to speak on the record in favor of what’s going on due to its sensitivity and heightened political tensions.

Besides, if you’re in business, why say anything that may upset any of your clientele?

For both the business owners and the employees, South Texas, as a whole, is entering unchartered territory.

ICE still says it’s not “raiding” businesses willy-nilly to see who is on the job legally vs. illegally, but rather, the two “Worksite Enforcement Actions” in Los Fresnos and McAllen, as they’re called by the feds, as opposed to “raids,” were the result of tips phoned into Homeland Security and/or information passed on to the feds.

Was it an upset customer, or an upset employee who was ticked off at the boss who provided the tips, the inside information?

Don’t know, but that’s what Homeland Security/ICE says happened.

A Homeland Security spokesperson said that ICE HSI is tasked with enforcing the business community’s compliance with federal employment law and has the responsibility to conduct worksite enforcement initiatives targeting employers who violate employment laws. (Source: KRGV.com.)

In other words, or so it would seem, if a tip gets phoned into Homeland Security or ICE that a business owner is using undocumented/illegal labor, it will be investigated.

All of this activity along the border doesn’t even include the worry felt by those who make their living from cross-border trade, which for the RGV, is huge.

March 4th is planted in their respective mind-sets because that’s the day that Trump will decide if both Canada and Mexico have done enough to secure their sides of the respective border to keep his 25-percent tariff threat at bay moving further into 2025.