A California fence company and two executives have been ordered to forfeit $5 million for employing illegal immigrants. But a San Diego judge stopped short of ordering jail time for the executives whose projects include a stretch of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Judge Barry Moskowitz struggled over the sentence because there's hardly any track record of criminal charges against the employers of illegal immigrants. Frankly, the judge said, prosecution is overdue. But he decided the executives from the Golden State Fence Company should not be made "poster children" by getting jail time, opting for home confinement and community service instead.
Defense lawyers stressed that Golden State workers were well-paid and never exploited. Michael Pancer says the company simply got caught for conduct that until now has been overlooked.
Pancer : If this is the first prosecution of a law that's been on the books since 1986, you'd either have to say they got caught in a changing political atmosphere -- or no company since 1986 has hired illegal workers. Everybody knows that's not true.
Dozens of Golden State workers were at the courthouse to show support for the executives. The company says it now has systems in place to keep illegal immigrants off its payroll. Scott Horsley, NPR News.
