[Rhodes22-list] Chinese Food (Immigration Law)

[Hank]

Brad,

My wife is originally from Mexico and I have lived there, but I am in full
agreement with the actions of the courts.  One of the most effective ways to
stop illegal immigration is to make it economically unfeasible.  If the jobs
for illegals dry up, then the illegal immigration will dry up also.  If
prices go up, so be it, but I don't think they will go up significantly.

Hank


On 8/30/07, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> You can bet that the cost of Chinese food in Wally's neighborhood is going
> up!  I have mixed emotions about this article but you can bet your arse
> that
> we won't tempt fate.  Brad
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Restaurateur gets jail time Chinese restaurant owner hired Mexican illegal
> immigrants
>
> By Jamie Satterfield
> Tuesday, August 28, 2007
> <http://license.icopyright.net/3.5413?icx_id=37263>
>
> A federal judge on Monday rejected the "everybody else is doing it"
> defense
> argued by an attorney on behalf of a restaurateur who staffed his business
> with illegal immigrants.
>
> "This is happening every day in Mexican restaurants," attorney Charles
> Torres argued on behalf of Pun Wun Chan. "As an immigration practitioner,
> I
> see these types of situations every day. It's hard for me to take it as a
> serious crime because it's a constant ongoing (thing)."
>
> U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan sided with Assistant U.S. Attorney Will
> Mackie, who told the judge, "I don't think there's any justification
> because
> others may do this."
>
> Varlan sentenced Chan, 51, to a year in prison for conspiring to harbor,
> house and employ as many as two dozen Hispanic illegal immigrants at his
> Number One China Buffet restaurant on Papermill Drive from December 2003
> to
> January 2005. That restaurant has since been torn down.
>
> "He appears to have led a law-abiding life up to this point," Varlan said.
> "However, it is clear the defendant attempted to sidestep some of the
> rules
> in place in order to increase his personal financial gain."
>
> Chan was born in Malaysia but became a naturalized citizen of the United
> States. Torres said Chan had enlisted the services of an employment agency
> in Georgia that advertised in a Chinese newspaper circulated in Knoxville.
>
> "All this agency (hires) is aliens," Torres said. "My client was wrong to
> use this agency and hire illegals. My client should have known better."
>
> Citing a recent article in a Washington, D.C., newspaper, Torres contended
> that even the federal government has hired illegal immigrants.
>
> "This country is somewhat dependent on this type of thing," he said of the
> employment of illegal immigrants.
>
> Mackie countered that what Chan did was to take advantage of illegal
> immigrants, who would be too afraid of discovery and deportation to report
> labor law violations or other mistreatment.
>
> "This is a case of exploiting a downtrodden, oppressed people," he said.
>
> Varlan did spare Chan's wife, Kim Yin Yap, from a prison term after
> attorney
> Bryan Delius argued that she was under the dominion of her husband.
>
> "She acted almost totally under the direction of her husband," Delius
> said.
>
> He also noted that with Yap's husband headed to prison, Yap would be the
> sole caretaker for the couple's 9-year-old daughter.
>
> "The court will take into consideration the need for care for Ms. Yap's
> daughter," Varlan said in placing Yap on three months of house arrest
> followed by two years on probation.
>
> This is the second case prosecuted federally involving the staffing of
> Chinese restaurants by illegal immigrants. Similar probes by the U.S.
> Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency of other area businesses are
> ongoing, court records indicate.
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