According to ICE, undocumented workers create vulnerabilities in the marketplace by presenting false documents to gain employment, completing applications for fraudulent benefits and stealing identities of legal U.S. workers.
An immigration raid at a Michigan dairy farm turned into some big cash gifts for two state police agencies, which received more than half a million dollars from the federal government for helping investigate and expose unlawful hiring practices at the farm, federal authorities announced today.
The Michigan State Police and the Huron County Sherriff’s Office have each received nearly $287,000 – money that stemmed from a criminal investigation of Aquila Farms, a Bad Axe dairy farm that was staffed almost exclusively with illegal immigrants, officials said. The dairy operation made headlines in 2007, when federal agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations raided the farm and arrested dozens of illegal immigrants.
The raid triggered charges against the farm’s owners, who were successfully prosecuted and ordered in 2011 to pay $234,000 in fines and forfeit more than $2.7 million. They did not get prison sentences but were sentenced to probation. The company also pleaded guilty to harboring illegal immigrants.
Michigan State Police and Huron County Sheriff’s Office both worked on the investigation, which made them eligible to receive the funds obtained from the probe under the federal government’s asset-forfeiture program, which applies to assets obtained from criminal activity.
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