paying the price (C&P)
This needs to happen to a lot more employers.
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5442207.html
Employer Of Murder Suspect Arrested
Prosecutors say illegal immigrant charged in killing of officer got help to re-enter U.S.
Houston Chronicle
The owner of a landscaping firm was arrested Wednesday and faces up to 10 years in federal prison, accused of harboring one of his workers, an illegal immigrant from Mexico charged with the capital murder of a Houston police officer.
Court documents show that Robert Lane Camp, 47, went to considerable lengths to help Juan Leonardo Quintero and keep him on the job at his Deer Park landscaping company before the September 2006 killing of officer Rodney Johnson.
In August 1998, Camp posted a $10,000 bond for Quintero after he was jailed on an indecency with a child charge and hired an attorney to defend him. After the worker was deported in May 1999, Camp sent him money in Mexico and later bought him a plane ticket from Phoenix to Houston after Quintero re-entered through Arizona illegally, according to an affidavit by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Camp then purchased a house in Houston and rented it to Quintero.
Camp walked out of the federal courthouse on Wednesday afternoon after U.S. Magistrate Stephen Smith approved a $50,000 bond following his first court appearance. His attorney, Jimmy Ardoin, would not comment after the hearing, and calls to Camp's home were not returned. No one answered the door at his Deer Park house Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle in Houston said the prosecution of Camp serves to "demonstrate the consequences a U.S. citizen faces" by harboring, employing or helping an illegal immigrant enter the country.
''The shooting of HPD officer Johnson was a tragic incident that could have been avoided," said DeGabrielle, in a statement released after Camp's arrest.
Camp also is charged with encouraging or inducing Quintero to enter the country illegally, and later harboring the immigrant in the Houston area. Quintero worked for Camp for at least 11 years, according to the affidavit.
Shot four times in head
On Sept. 21, 2006, officer Johnson stopped a truck owned by Camp's company for a traffic violation and arrested Quintero after the landscape worker could not provide a driver's license. As the officer wrote up his report in the front seat of his police car, authorities say, Quintero pulled a pistol overlooked in a body search and shot Johnson four times in the head.
The charges against Camp are the result of a lengthy investigation by the Houston Police Department and ICE agents.
Robert Rutt, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Houston, echoed DeGabrielle's comments.
''Officer Johnson's terrible murder illustrates that hiring and harboring illegal aliens is not a victimless crime," Rutt said. "Many illegal aliens, especially aliens with criminal convictions, are desperate to avoid being detected and apprehended. These people also tend to take desperate actions, and the results are often tragic."
On the sixth floor of a Harris County Jail facility, Quintero seemed pensive Wednesday when told for the first time his friend and alleged employer was charged in federal court.
"Excuse me if I can't discuss details of the case. I just can't," Quintero said.
At the advice of his lawyer, Quintero said he couldn't talk.
"My situation is difficult, the options are life (in prison) or death," he said of what a guilty verdict would bring.
Quintero has largely been cut off from the outside world and the general jail population, spending his days locked in his own cell, a standard procedure for prisoners facing capital murder charges.
Jury selection in Quintero's trial is scheduled for March 31.
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5442207.html
Employer Of Murder Suspect Arrested
Prosecutors say illegal immigrant charged in killing of officer got help to re-enter U.S.
Houston Chronicle
The owner of a landscaping firm was arrested Wednesday and faces up to 10 years in federal prison, accused of harboring one of his workers, an illegal immigrant from Mexico charged with the capital murder of a Houston police officer.
Court documents show that Robert Lane Camp, 47, went to considerable lengths to help Juan Leonardo Quintero and keep him on the job at his Deer Park landscaping company before the September 2006 killing of officer Rodney Johnson.
In August 1998, Camp posted a $10,000 bond for Quintero after he was jailed on an indecency with a child charge and hired an attorney to defend him. After the worker was deported in May 1999, Camp sent him money in Mexico and later bought him a plane ticket from Phoenix to Houston after Quintero re-entered through Arizona illegally, according to an affidavit by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. Camp then purchased a house in Houston and rented it to Quintero.
Camp walked out of the federal courthouse on Wednesday afternoon after U.S. Magistrate Stephen Smith approved a $50,000 bond following his first court appearance. His attorney, Jimmy Ardoin, would not comment after the hearing, and calls to Camp's home were not returned. No one answered the door at his Deer Park house Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle in Houston said the prosecution of Camp serves to "demonstrate the consequences a U.S. citizen faces" by harboring, employing or helping an illegal immigrant enter the country.
''The shooting of HPD officer Johnson was a tragic incident that could have been avoided," said DeGabrielle, in a statement released after Camp's arrest.
Camp also is charged with encouraging or inducing Quintero to enter the country illegally, and later harboring the immigrant in the Houston area. Quintero worked for Camp for at least 11 years, according to the affidavit.
Shot four times in head
On Sept. 21, 2006, officer Johnson stopped a truck owned by Camp's company for a traffic violation and arrested Quintero after the landscape worker could not provide a driver's license. As the officer wrote up his report in the front seat of his police car, authorities say, Quintero pulled a pistol overlooked in a body search and shot Johnson four times in the head.
The charges against Camp are the result of a lengthy investigation by the Houston Police Department and ICE agents.
Robert Rutt, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Houston, echoed DeGabrielle's comments.
''Officer Johnson's terrible murder illustrates that hiring and harboring illegal aliens is not a victimless crime," Rutt said. "Many illegal aliens, especially aliens with criminal convictions, are desperate to avoid being detected and apprehended. These people also tend to take desperate actions, and the results are often tragic."
On the sixth floor of a Harris County Jail facility, Quintero seemed pensive Wednesday when told for the first time his friend and alleged employer was charged in federal court.
"Excuse me if I can't discuss details of the case. I just can't," Quintero said.
At the advice of his lawyer, Quintero said he couldn't talk.
"My situation is difficult, the options are life (in prison) or death," he said of what a guilty verdict would bring.
Quintero has largely been cut off from the outside world and the general jail population, spending his days locked in his own cell, a standard procedure for prisoners facing capital murder charges.
Jury selection in Quintero's trial is scheduled for March 31.
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Let him rot in there for a full 10 years. Maybe that will open a few eyes. 0 -
why in the world would somebody pay that kind of money for an illegle.I hope that put this J/A in an ajoining cell. Somebody please explain how this could happen. 0 -
why isnt it illegal in the u.s. to hire an illegal alien? it should be law that the employer must make sure that they dont hire illegals and if they do 10 years behind bars and the govt. takes all assets! then you would see illegals going back home in their thousands!
the arguments that i have heard about illegals work cheaper than americans is discusting! hit the bosses and companys in their wallets and they will see that it isnt cheaper!
also the argument that illegals will do work that americans wont do is an insult to all americans!...if the bosses pay a decent living wage americans will do the work!
but as long as the government turns a blind eye to illegals things will not change!
huge fines and jail time for hiring illegals will fix the problem within 12 months, once the bosses and the companys see that the government is serious about stopping illegals the problem will go away as they go back to their own country.0 -
Uh...it is against the law, but rarely enforced.
I'm waiting to see what happens when crime victims of these people start filing civil suits against employers when it can be shown they aided in their entry.0 -
We have two different kinds of laws here Dan. The ones that are enforced, and sometimes over enforced/misinterpreted, and then the ones that for some mysterious reason can't be enforced. 0 -
it seems to me that if the laws are`nt being enforced that they should be dropped all together, then maybe enough people would get angry enough to vote in people who will introduce strong laws that will be inforced..from what i`ve read, there are two bodies who have powers there. the federal govt. and also the states seem to have the power to make laws in regards to penalties for people who hire illegals, here its different...only the feds can make laws about immigration so we only have one level of government to threaten with loosing their nice comfy lucrative jobs at election time, our laws are far from being good, but they do seem stricter than the u.s. laws which surprises me because we are an island country, we dont share an international border with anyone!...people coming here come by boat or plane!
to have a common border with another country would in my opinion make sense to have VERY strict border control...how does the u.s. govt. know that terroists are`nt going to mexico and then making their way into the united states illegally just by strolling over what seems like an open border.
the thought of that happening is scary!0
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