Federal immigration charges brought against Chamblee, Georgia employment agencies
Three Chamblee, Georgia employment agencies were raided by ICE and FBI agents on Thursday leading to the indictment of eight business owners and the arrest of 39 suspected illegal immigrants.
Federal agents also arrested two Chinese restaurant owners during the sweep. The three Chamblee employment agencies, "New Fuzhou", "Lucky", and "Zhong Mei", allegedly targeted undocumented workers by advertising in local newspapers.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution has the story.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta claims that the owners of the Chamblee employment agencies placed undocumented workers in Chinese restaurant jobs in Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi and Tennessee. Prosecutors say that the owners did not require paperwork to show that the workers could legally live and work in the country. Prosecutors also believe that the business owners exploited the workers by charging high commission fees and placing them in jobs that required long shifts with substandard pay.
The federal indictments that were handed down on Friday include the names of Pili Chen of Tucker, Chun Yan Lin of Chamblee, Ai Lin Fu of Norcross, Jing Xing Jiang of Lawrenceville, Liang Feng Chen of Duluth, Xian Mei Ke of Duluth, Sau Ting Cheng of Duluth and Chunbiao Xu of Norcross. The indictment goes on to state that Jiang, Ke and Cheng hired undocumented workers through the agencies to work at the Fuji Buffet in Lawrenceville, the Hong Kong Super Buffet located in Gainesville, and the Grand Buffet in Duluth.
The eight business owners have been indicted for conspiracy to induce undocumented aliens to enter and to remain in the county by providing employment. If convicted, each defendant could receive a 10 year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine. To convict an individual of inducing an alien to enter and reside in the country, the government must first prove that the accused individual either had knowledge that the workers were illegally in the country or that the accused acted with reckless disregard.
Our criminal defense lawyers recently handled a similar case in this district. Our client was charged with exactly the same offenses, and we were able to get all charges dismissed before trial.
