Posted on 10/04/2017 8:27:42 AM PDT by Maceman
The tree-trimming company Asplundh Tree Expert has been hit with a $95 million fine for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and for bringing on some under different names who used documents it knew were fraudulent.
It is the largest fine ever in an immigration case in the U.S.
Asplundh pleaded guilty to criminal charges in federal court in Pennsylvania, where it is headquartered, admitting that its managers restructured the company's hiring specifically to evade normal human resources processes and hire illegal aliens, many by word-of-mouth, while giving top-level managers deniability.
The $95 million fine includes forfeiture of up to $80 million in profits that the company earned as a result of its hiring of illegal aliens, plus a civil fine of $15 million.
The federal lawsuit brought against the company by the Department of Justice named manager Larry Gauger as plaintiff in addition to the company, saying he instructed managers working under him to hire people they knew were illegal aliens.
But what made things worse, and the fine no doubt much larger, was that the company, and Gauger, set up a system to hire illegal aliens after a government audit and in outright defiance of the government.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifezette.com ...
I am sure the reason they agreed to the fine, which will almost certainly BK the company (and the bad press that comes from it) was to keep their arses out of jail.
Company will likely be BK, or renamed in short order...no doubt their 3.9 Billion in revenues are going to plummet after this.
I hope this court judgement puts the fear of God into my unscrupulous competitors in the North Texas construction trades.
I want my industry (and my income) back.
Sessions didn't have a damned thing to do with this case.
No, and neither would Jeff Sessions. The man is a useless bench warmer.
Actually, he's even worse than useless, because he's occupying the office of AG while refusing to do the job, thus robbing the people and the President of a real, functioning Attorney General.
Asplundh isn't just any old tree trimming outfit. They're one of the largest companies of their type. Their net worth is in the billions.
This actually quite a big deal, and will cause a ripple effect throughout U.S. industries.
There are a few. I just had my roof done by red blooded Americans. My buddy owns the company. On Saturday afternoon, he showed up with all his kids to clean us the shingle scraps.
American men built this country. The only reason they don't still dominate the trades, is due to illegals driving wages down.
Get rid of the illegals, and the good wages will return, along with American men.
Amen to that.
The workers losing their jobs are ILLEGAL ALIENS.
Every one of them stole their job from an American citizen. They did it by driving the wages down so low that honest Americans could no longer work those jobs.
My family has damn near been run out of business by these thieves.
Americans won't do these jobs because the companies pay slave wages. The companies pay those low wages because there are millions of illegals willing to work for low pay.
Remove the illegals, and the labor market will revert to its former state. Only then will Americans return to those jobs.
Thank you!
My wife and I have owned a small construction business for twenty years. Over the last dozen years or so, we've had to cut our prices by almost half, just to stay competitive with our unscrupulous competitors who hire illegals (which we never have).
Since Trump has been in office, there has been a noticeable uptick in our business that I attribute to rising consumer confidence.
If Trump manages to cause a stampede of illegals out of the trades - Katie bar the door. My business will explode.
Do you have reliable statistics for your opinion?
It's not my opinion, it's my direct observations over my 40 year career in the building trades. I've witnessed everything I've spoken of, up close and personal, from growing up around my grandfather's construction business, to the last twenty years running my own.
I've got a database of twenty years of business records that show the steady decline in my earnings, and it's all due the steady erosion of retail labor prices in my industry. ALL of that erosion has been due to the easy availability of cheap illegal labor.
I would think a Freeper would know this fact is beyond dispute.
Do you figure that the power companies will simply let the trees grow into the power lines and set the country on fire? Or will they seek out other companies to do the same work who will hire the deserving men who are presently doing the job?
http://thefederalist.com/2016/07/14/4-things-to-know-about-whether-immigrants-hurt-american-workers/
I’ve got 40 years of direct experience, up close and personal, with the wage destroying effects of illegals in industry - including 20 years of documented evidence in my own business files - and you counter that hard won knowledge with a link to some wonk’s opinion?
Given the fact that my family has suffered directly from this scourge in ways I can hardly describe, I take great offense to your callous response.
For you, this is nothing more than a debate on the internet with some anonymous poster. For me, it’s blood and guts, catastrophic financial losses, actual emotional heartbreak, shattered dreams, unrealized ambitions, financial terrors, and hurt on a level I can’t describe.
My family has suffered the loss of millions of dollars in lost income and business growth, which was denied to us by unfair competition in our industry these last fifteen years.
What’s truly galling, is the fact that you’re sitting here on Free Republic arguing the liberal line that illegals don’t hurt our economy, and that they’re merely “doing the jobs Americans won’t do”.
Maybe you really are a liberal, or maybe you’re a friend of the Cheap Labor Express.
Why blame me? I have absolutely zero say on who gets hired by any company in America for any job. I get by on SS only. Who companies hire and how much they pay employees are not influenced by me in any way. I have no influence on immigration laws. You hate against me is misplaced.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
Hate? I'm upset with you for brushing aside my real life testimony about the hardships illegals have caused to working professionals such as myself, but I don't hate you. I just think you're woefully misinformed about this issue.
When I first entered the skilled building trades in the late 70s, they were dominated by American men. It was rare to see a latino of any sort on jobsites back in those days, let alone Mexican illegals.
Those jobs paid well, and were hard to come by. You had to know someone to get hired as an apprentice or a helper. Guys would practically kill for the opportunity to get their foot in the door.
And those Americans did every imaginable type of labor in those days, including "jobs Americans won't do". Why? Because those jobs paid well, and a guy could work his way up the ladder to become a skilled journeyman, which provided even better pay, and a sure path into the middle class.
That all changed, as illegals came in, offering to do the same work for half the pay. Within a decade, guys like me, who'd dedicated their lives to that career, found their wages steadily shrinking. Eventually, most American men were forced out, due to low wages.
Unfortunately, some of us had already been at it for so long, we couldn't quit. We had no other marketable skills to offer, and so we suffered. And suffered, and suffered some more.
If I told you all the details of what my wife and kids went through because of this, you'd be in tears. We went from being solidly middle class, to living in a shack, relying on charity within a few short years. It took us five long years of brutal determination to escape that poverty.
We're still a family business, and we're doing ok, but we now work twice as hard for half the pay we used to make.
I am really sorry our government sokd you and others out.
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