The New America

Source: elpasotimes

The owners of a quarry in far East El Paso pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to harbor immigrants for financial gain, concluding the first criminal prosecution of a business for employing undocumented immigrants in the Western District of Texas in seven or eight years, officials with the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Brothers Romulado Soto, 53, of Clint, and Jose Cruz Soto, 41, of far East El Paso County, both U.S. citizens, are scheduled to be sentenced in February. They face up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. Their lawyer could not be reached.

In April, El Paso sheriff’s deputies conducted a welfare check at Soto Rock Hauling, a quarry in the desert near Gas Line Road that produces rocks for rock walls. They found 25 undocumented immigrants working there.

Officers were tipped off by an undocumented driver they had stopped at a traffic checkpoint.

“He described how the owners of the quarry would contract with smugglers to bring aliens from Tornillo … to the quarry, where the Soto brothers would pay the smuggling debts. The alien stated they then were required to work off such debt,” court documents described. “While at the quarry, the aliens had lived in cardboard boxes, old trailers, sleeper boxes of old semi-tractors, and they had no running water, sanitation facilities or electricity.”

Prosecutors have said the case had elements of human trafficking. Even though the quarry had no gate or fence, it was remote and “there was no way for the aliens to easily leave without a ride being arranged for them,” court documents showed.

Feel the pride!

For those who get huffy when I make the comparison to slavery? Do me a favor and look up "indentured servant." You just might learn something.

H/T Beyond Borders Blog

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