Operation FALCON 2008 arrests 105 fugitives in Permian Basin
by Kathleen Thurber
Midland Reporter-Telegram
Published: Friday, July 18, 2008 3:16 AM CDT
From Staff Reports
Local law enforcement arrested 105 fugitives and cleared 121 warrants in the Permian Basin during its annual Operation FALCON effort conducted in collaboration with U.S. Marshals Service and other agencies nationwide, officials announced Thursday.
Following a four-year tradition, local officials conducted Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally) between June 23 and June 29 in an effort to capture individuals wanted on federal and state felony charges including narcotics violations, state parole and probation violations and other crimes of violence, according to a release from the U.S. Marshals Service.
Nationally, Operation FALCON arrested 19,380 fugitives and cleared 25,087 warrants, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and U.S. Marshals Service Director John Clark announced Thursday.
Locally, officers from Midland's U.S. Marshals office, police from Pecos, Alpine, Midland and Odessa, sheriff's officials from Midland and Ector counties, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and Midland Independent School District police participated, according to the release.
More than 160 state agencies, 1,425 sheriffs' and police departments and 30 federal agencies participated in the operation nationwide.
In previous years, Operation FALCON has taken place during the same week in every state, according to the release. The method was altered slightly this year in that it allowed local agencies to choose a week during June where they would be able to collaborate best and the Permian Basin choose the last part of June.
Since its inception in 2005, the program has made more than 55,800 arrests and cleared nearly 70,500 warrants. This year, those arrests included 161 people wanted for murder, 388 gang members and 1,096 sex offenders, according to the release.
Showing posts with label Midland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Midland. Show all posts
June 30, 2008
Operation FALCON 2008 Rounds Up Dangerous Fugitives in the Permian Basin
Operation FALCON 2008 Rounds Up Dangerous Fugitives in the Permian Basin
June 30, 2008
Midland, TX – Following a four-year tradition of success in its national efforts, the U.S. Marshals Service locally conducted another successful Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally) from June 23-June 29. Led by the U.S. Marshal Service, Operation FALCON is a nationwide law enforcement effort.
Operation FALCON 2008–Permian Basin, combined the collective efforts of multiple law enforcement agencies focusing on capturing individuals wanted on Federal and State felony charges including narcotics violations, state parole and probation violations, and other crimes of violence. Over the course of the six-day operation, the combined resources of federal, state, and local law enforcement officers arrested 105 fugitives, and cleared 121 warrants in the Permian Basin.
“This operation, along with the ongoing efforts of the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force in the Western District of Texas, provides a clear indication of our commitment to ensuring the safety of our community” said LaFayette Collins, U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Texas. “The combined efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement should send a strong message to those who are wanted, that there is no safe haven for them to hide.“
Operation FALCON – Permian Basin, consisted of officers with The U.S. Marshals from Midland, Pecos, and Alpine, Midland Police Department, Odessa Police Department, Midland County Sheriff’s Office, Ector County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Texas Department of Public Safety, and Midland Independent School District Police.
Since its inception in 2005, Operation FALCON has made over 36,500 arrests and cleared over 45,300 warrants. It continues to be the largest and most successful fugitive apprehension effort in U.S. Marshals history.
For more information about the U.S. Marshals Service, visit http://www.usmarshals.gov.
America’s Oldest Federal Law Enforcement Agency
FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
June 30, 2008 Phill Maxwell, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal
(432) 686-4100, ext.223
Billy Johnson, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal
(432) 445-5495, ext. 44
June 30, 2008
Midland, TX – Following a four-year tradition of success in its national efforts, the U.S. Marshals Service locally conducted another successful Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally) from June 23-June 29. Led by the U.S. Marshal Service, Operation FALCON is a nationwide law enforcement effort.
Operation FALCON 2008–Permian Basin, combined the collective efforts of multiple law enforcement agencies focusing on capturing individuals wanted on Federal and State felony charges including narcotics violations, state parole and probation violations, and other crimes of violence. Over the course of the six-day operation, the combined resources of federal, state, and local law enforcement officers arrested 105 fugitives, and cleared 121 warrants in the Permian Basin.
“This operation, along with the ongoing efforts of the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force in the Western District of Texas, provides a clear indication of our commitment to ensuring the safety of our community” said LaFayette Collins, U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Texas. “The combined efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement should send a strong message to those who are wanted, that there is no safe haven for them to hide.“
Operation FALCON – Permian Basin, consisted of officers with The U.S. Marshals from Midland, Pecos, and Alpine, Midland Police Department, Odessa Police Department, Midland County Sheriff’s Office, Ector County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Texas Department of Public Safety, and Midland Independent School District Police.
Since its inception in 2005, Operation FALCON has made over 36,500 arrests and cleared over 45,300 warrants. It continues to be the largest and most successful fugitive apprehension effort in U.S. Marshals history.
For more information about the U.S. Marshals Service, visit http://www.usmarshals.gov.
America’s Oldest Federal Law Enforcement Agency
FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
June 30, 2008 Phill Maxwell, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal
(432) 686-4100, ext.223
Billy Johnson, Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal
(432) 445-5495, ext. 44
June 22, 2008
BORDER CROSSING: Others' history of bloody violence stemming 'safe' border town flow
BORDER CROSSING: Others' history of bloody violence stemming 'safe' border town flow
By Jennifer Edwards and Courtney Bacalso
Staff Writers
Published: Sunday, June 22, 2008 1:35 PM CDT
CIUDAD ACUNA, Mexico — The main street is in permanent fiesta mode. Signs canopy Hidalgo Street in friendly neon, taco carts edge along with homely tortillas in plastic bags and cheap mescal is on offer in the curio shops.
But since last year, the party has gone out of this party town located four hours from Midland, and once-busy shops are feeling the pinch.
Locals say far fewer visitors are crossing the bridge to come into Mexico, that the border violence in places like Ciudad Juárez and Nuevo Laredo has left a taint on all border towns.
“Everybody wants to come to Mexico, but they are afraid to come,” said Jose Pepe Treviño Jr.,
owner of The Golden Brush, a curio shop on Hidalgo.
He rests on a dais covered with T-shirts, across from a rack weighted with bottles of tequila and mescal. Compact and weary-looking, Treviño estimates last year, about 80 people a day would visit his shop. These days, it’s more like 60.
He blames the 25 percent reduction on bad press that seems to equate all border towns with violence.
Recent news stories have focused on paroxysms of violence in which powerful drug cartels are lashing back at the country’s attempts to oust them and shut down lucrative drug routes.
By the end of May, more than 1,400 Mexicans had died in those battles — 40 percent more than the same five months last year, according to an ABC News report.
Many of those slayings have taken place in escalating violence in Ciudad Juárez, a city of more than a million that butts up against El Paso. Drug violence also continues in Nuevo Laredo, though an official said slayings are down by 55 percent in its American border city, Laredo.
“We’ve actually had a dramatic decrease in our homicide rate last year ... we had under 10 for all of the last year,” said Officer Joe Baeza, public relations for the Laredo Police Department. This year, there have been six murders, three of which were related to domestic violence, according to statistics later supplied by Baeza.
Meanwhile, authorities in Tamaulipas, the state where Nuevo Laredo is located, reported 42 were slain in Nuevo Laredo, 20 of whom were tied to narcotics trafficking.
Calls to the public affairs office for the El Paso branch of the Customs and Immigration Enforcement office were not returned.
Baeza cited the efforts of the Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, to increase military presence in border cities and his increased crackdown on drug cartels, though those factors have been cited in the increasing conflicts between Mexican police and military and drug cartels in Juárez.
However, such organized violence does not boil over in such grand fashion in smaller border cities like Ciudad Acuña or Ojinaga, Mexican cities located less than five hours away from Midland.
“The violence is spreading quite a bit along the border,” said Presidio County Judge Jerry Agan, the West Texas representative for the Texas Good Neighbor Commission.
Still, in the past three weeks, open violence related to drug trafficking resulted in four deaths in Ojinaga — including a police officer and three individuals machine gunned to death, he said.
Cpt. William Rattay, of the Del Rio police department, said Acuña, for instance, has had some drug-related deaths though he was not certain how many.
“We have people go across every day and it’s usually not a problem,” he said. “As long as you stay on the main drags, I think you’re fine. It’s not the Wild West.”
Yet, people still fear coming, Treviño said.
“Even the Mexican people (in the U.S.) are afraid to come,” he said.
Jamie Aleman, who owns Casa de Nacho, a neighboring curio shop, agreed.
“If something happens (in Mexico), in the U.S., there is a big sign: Don’t go to Mexico,” he said. He feels that is unfair because “the gangs fight with each other, not the tourists.”
In order to cope with declining revenue from tourists, many of them Texans, Treviño’s even had to cut out one of his favorite habits — going to see a movie Thursday nights.
“It’s been four months,” since he quit the flicks, he said. “We are waiting for better times.”
The scare hasn’t just impacted businesses south of the border; it’s hit some cities on the U.S. side hard, too.
North of the border
A city of about 35,000, Del Rio sits squarely across from Acuña, population 125,000. A road and four pedestrian bridges link the two cities but much more connects them than those arteries.
Del Rio has a transborder economic interdependence with Acuña, Del Rio native Jay Johnson-Castro Sr. said.
“You have to understand, Acuña is ‘just the other side of town’ to us,” Johnson-Castro added, as he and his American companions shopped at a pottery store.
They ordered several ornate pieces as they killed time before attending the quinceñera, or 15th birthday party, for the daughter of one of his employees.
Johnson-Castro owns a bed and breakfast in Del Rio. Villa Del Rio guests stop over on their way to Acuña and other Mexican towns.
Sarah Boone, co-owner of the bed and breakfast, said occupancy has declined 50 percent in the past three years. She attributes the decline to the perception that the entire border is dangerous.
“We aren’t Nuevo Laredo, Juarez or any of our sister cities along the border,” she said. “It’s very safe over here and it makes no sense to blackball the entire border. You wouldn’t see people blackballing Houston if Dallas had a rash of crime.”
And the decline in tourism in the area has caused Acuñans to make fewer shopping trips across the border.
In 2001, Acuñans comprised of 20 percent of the shoppers at Plaza del Sol, the mall in Del Rio. Their purchases totaled 60 percent of the dollars made at the mall on a given day — 80 percent on a Mexican holiday, said its general manager Blanca Larson.
“While they come in few numbers, they make more or larger purchases,” Larson said. “But we’ve seen a decline in the past couple of years despite the Mexican economy getting stronger.”
With fewer tourists going to Acuña, money isn’t coming back into Del Rio like it had been.
“What happens in Acuña affects Del Rio,” Larson said. “We really rely on each other.”
Safe shopping
Meanwhile, Acuña officials have taken measures to ensure the security of tourists who do make it there.
A month ago, Acuña officials began taking more measures to ensure the safety of tourists, Acuña’s tourism director Hector Arocha said.
The city opened a small satellite office near the Amistad Bridge tucked away in between dentist offices on Hidalgo.
And fliers have been handed out to tourists indicating the fines if ticketed and contact information in case of any problems, Arocha said.
“We have to take special care of our tourists,” Arocha said, “because a lot of our families live off the tourism here — our taxi drivers, waiters, barmen and shopkeepers.”
By Jennifer Edwards and Courtney Bacalso
Staff Writers
Published: Sunday, June 22, 2008 1:35 PM CDT
CIUDAD ACUNA, Mexico — The main street is in permanent fiesta mode. Signs canopy Hidalgo Street in friendly neon, taco carts edge along with homely tortillas in plastic bags and cheap mescal is on offer in the curio shops.
But since last year, the party has gone out of this party town located four hours from Midland, and once-busy shops are feeling the pinch.
Locals say far fewer visitors are crossing the bridge to come into Mexico, that the border violence in places like Ciudad Juárez and Nuevo Laredo has left a taint on all border towns.
“Everybody wants to come to Mexico, but they are afraid to come,” said Jose Pepe Treviño Jr.,
owner of The Golden Brush, a curio shop on Hidalgo.
He rests on a dais covered with T-shirts, across from a rack weighted with bottles of tequila and mescal. Compact and weary-looking, Treviño estimates last year, about 80 people a day would visit his shop. These days, it’s more like 60.
He blames the 25 percent reduction on bad press that seems to equate all border towns with violence.
Recent news stories have focused on paroxysms of violence in which powerful drug cartels are lashing back at the country’s attempts to oust them and shut down lucrative drug routes.
By the end of May, more than 1,400 Mexicans had died in those battles — 40 percent more than the same five months last year, according to an ABC News report.
Many of those slayings have taken place in escalating violence in Ciudad Juárez, a city of more than a million that butts up against El Paso. Drug violence also continues in Nuevo Laredo, though an official said slayings are down by 55 percent in its American border city, Laredo.
“We’ve actually had a dramatic decrease in our homicide rate last year ... we had under 10 for all of the last year,” said Officer Joe Baeza, public relations for the Laredo Police Department. This year, there have been six murders, three of which were related to domestic violence, according to statistics later supplied by Baeza.
Meanwhile, authorities in Tamaulipas, the state where Nuevo Laredo is located, reported 42 were slain in Nuevo Laredo, 20 of whom were tied to narcotics trafficking.
Calls to the public affairs office for the El Paso branch of the Customs and Immigration Enforcement office were not returned.
Baeza cited the efforts of the Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, to increase military presence in border cities and his increased crackdown on drug cartels, though those factors have been cited in the increasing conflicts between Mexican police and military and drug cartels in Juárez.
However, such organized violence does not boil over in such grand fashion in smaller border cities like Ciudad Acuña or Ojinaga, Mexican cities located less than five hours away from Midland.
“The violence is spreading quite a bit along the border,” said Presidio County Judge Jerry Agan, the West Texas representative for the Texas Good Neighbor Commission.
Still, in the past three weeks, open violence related to drug trafficking resulted in four deaths in Ojinaga — including a police officer and three individuals machine gunned to death, he said.
Cpt. William Rattay, of the Del Rio police department, said Acuña, for instance, has had some drug-related deaths though he was not certain how many.
“We have people go across every day and it’s usually not a problem,” he said. “As long as you stay on the main drags, I think you’re fine. It’s not the Wild West.”
Yet, people still fear coming, Treviño said.
“Even the Mexican people (in the U.S.) are afraid to come,” he said.
Jamie Aleman, who owns Casa de Nacho, a neighboring curio shop, agreed.
“If something happens (in Mexico), in the U.S., there is a big sign: Don’t go to Mexico,” he said. He feels that is unfair because “the gangs fight with each other, not the tourists.”
In order to cope with declining revenue from tourists, many of them Texans, Treviño’s even had to cut out one of his favorite habits — going to see a movie Thursday nights.
“It’s been four months,” since he quit the flicks, he said. “We are waiting for better times.”
The scare hasn’t just impacted businesses south of the border; it’s hit some cities on the U.S. side hard, too.
North of the border
A city of about 35,000, Del Rio sits squarely across from Acuña, population 125,000. A road and four pedestrian bridges link the two cities but much more connects them than those arteries.
Del Rio has a transborder economic interdependence with Acuña, Del Rio native Jay Johnson-Castro Sr. said.
“You have to understand, Acuña is ‘just the other side of town’ to us,” Johnson-Castro added, as he and his American companions shopped at a pottery store.
They ordered several ornate pieces as they killed time before attending the quinceñera, or 15th birthday party, for the daughter of one of his employees.
Johnson-Castro owns a bed and breakfast in Del Rio. Villa Del Rio guests stop over on their way to Acuña and other Mexican towns.
Sarah Boone, co-owner of the bed and breakfast, said occupancy has declined 50 percent in the past three years. She attributes the decline to the perception that the entire border is dangerous.
“We aren’t Nuevo Laredo, Juarez or any of our sister cities along the border,” she said. “It’s very safe over here and it makes no sense to blackball the entire border. You wouldn’t see people blackballing Houston if Dallas had a rash of crime.”
And the decline in tourism in the area has caused Acuñans to make fewer shopping trips across the border.
In 2001, Acuñans comprised of 20 percent of the shoppers at Plaza del Sol, the mall in Del Rio. Their purchases totaled 60 percent of the dollars made at the mall on a given day — 80 percent on a Mexican holiday, said its general manager Blanca Larson.
“While they come in few numbers, they make more or larger purchases,” Larson said. “But we’ve seen a decline in the past couple of years despite the Mexican economy getting stronger.”
With fewer tourists going to Acuña, money isn’t coming back into Del Rio like it had been.
“What happens in Acuña affects Del Rio,” Larson said. “We really rely on each other.”
Safe shopping
Meanwhile, Acuña officials have taken measures to ensure the security of tourists who do make it there.
A month ago, Acuña officials began taking more measures to ensure the safety of tourists, Acuña’s tourism director Hector Arocha said.
The city opened a small satellite office near the Amistad Bridge tucked away in between dentist offices on Hidalgo.
And fliers have been handed out to tourists indicating the fines if ticketed and contact information in case of any problems, Arocha said.
“We have to take special care of our tourists,” Arocha said, “because a lot of our families live off the tourism here — our taxi drivers, waiters, barmen and shopkeepers.”
June 13, 2008
Texas Civil Rights Project merits accolades in seeking justice
Texas Civil Rights Project merits accolades in seeking justice
Ouisa D. Davis / Guest columnist
Article Launched: 06/13/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT
If you ever meet George McAlmon or Jim Harrington, you'll be drawn to their gentle spirits, peace-filled gaze and softness of speech. But they are formidable men, valiant and unwavering in their pursuit of justice for those excluded from the justice system.
McAlmon has done so as a private attorney since 1950, well known for his advocacy and efforts to provide access to legal services and protection of civil rights in our border community.
Harrington is executive director and founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal aid clinic promoting racial, social, and economic justice and protecting civil rights provided under the U.S. Constitution, state and federal law.
Striving to foster equality, secure justice, ensure diversity and strengthen communities, TCRP was founded in 1990 and now has an established presence in South Texas, Austin, El Paso and Midland/Odessa.
For over 18 years TCRP has tirelessly advocated for racial, social and economic equality in Texas through education and litigation. The Project has worked steadfastly to extend rights to farmworkers and residents of the Rio Grande Valley to improve their living and working conditions.
No area of civil rights is invisible to TCRP's vigilant gaze.
Achieving substantial gains in ensuring justice, TCRP uses education and litigation to create structural change in areas such as voting rights, police and Border Patrol misconduct, sex discrimination, employment bias, privacy, disability rights, grand
jury discrimination, traditional civil liberties, protections under immigration and education law.
Because of TCRP, jails in Hidalgo, El Paso, Henderson, Tom Green, Williamson, Travis, Bexar, Dallas, and Brown Counties do more to prevent inmate suicide, provide interpreters for deaf prisoners, protect vulnerable inmates from sexual assault, administer HIV medications, and make jails accessible for inmates with disabilities.
TCRP now has an El Paso office, the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project, which, over the past two years, has taken on the task of education and reform, improving access to public and private facilities and programs for the disabled and raising consciousness regarding compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Developing a bilingual consumer rights curriculum targeted at colonia residents, the agency provides education in homeowner rights and responsibilities and protections.
PDNCRP delivers legal services to 17 underserved counties for undocumented domestic violence victims, leadership training and community education in immigration rights and protections under state and federal law.
Addressing police misconduct throughout West Texas and Southern New Mexico, PDNCRP resolved cases of excessive force by law enforcement officers, false arrest, racial profiling and warrantless searches of homes, including negotiating a Taser policy with Odessa police to prevent the use of this weapon against the elderly, children and pregnant women.
PDNCRP vigorously protects First Amendment guarantees of free speech and peaceful assembly, defending a San Elizario storeowner against false charges when El Paso sheriff's deputies retaliated against him for protesting immigration roadblocks and mediating a training program for El Paso Police Department officers after allegations of police assault during a peaceful rally at Montwood High.
Café Mayapan, 2000 Texas Street, will reverberate with the celebration of the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project Fiesta Fronteriza on June 20 when McAlmon will be honored for his dedication.
Tickets are available online at texascivilrightsproject.org or by calling 532-2799.
Ouisa D. Davis is an attorney at law in El Paso. E-mail: Ouisadavis@yahoo.com
http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_9567753
Ouisa D. Davis / Guest columnist
Article Launched: 06/13/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT
If you ever meet George McAlmon or Jim Harrington, you'll be drawn to their gentle spirits, peace-filled gaze and softness of speech. But they are formidable men, valiant and unwavering in their pursuit of justice for those excluded from the justice system.
McAlmon has done so as a private attorney since 1950, well known for his advocacy and efforts to provide access to legal services and protection of civil rights in our border community.
Harrington is executive director and founder of the Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal aid clinic promoting racial, social, and economic justice and protecting civil rights provided under the U.S. Constitution, state and federal law.
Striving to foster equality, secure justice, ensure diversity and strengthen communities, TCRP was founded in 1990 and now has an established presence in South Texas, Austin, El Paso and Midland/Odessa.
For over 18 years TCRP has tirelessly advocated for racial, social and economic equality in Texas through education and litigation. The Project has worked steadfastly to extend rights to farmworkers and residents of the Rio Grande Valley to improve their living and working conditions.
No area of civil rights is invisible to TCRP's vigilant gaze.
Achieving substantial gains in ensuring justice, TCRP uses education and litigation to create structural change in areas such as voting rights, police and Border Patrol misconduct, sex discrimination, employment bias, privacy, disability rights, grand
jury discrimination, traditional civil liberties, protections under immigration and education law.
Because of TCRP, jails in Hidalgo, El Paso, Henderson, Tom Green, Williamson, Travis, Bexar, Dallas, and Brown Counties do more to prevent inmate suicide, provide interpreters for deaf prisoners, protect vulnerable inmates from sexual assault, administer HIV medications, and make jails accessible for inmates with disabilities.
TCRP now has an El Paso office, the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project, which, over the past two years, has taken on the task of education and reform, improving access to public and private facilities and programs for the disabled and raising consciousness regarding compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Developing a bilingual consumer rights curriculum targeted at colonia residents, the agency provides education in homeowner rights and responsibilities and protections.
PDNCRP delivers legal services to 17 underserved counties for undocumented domestic violence victims, leadership training and community education in immigration rights and protections under state and federal law.
Addressing police misconduct throughout West Texas and Southern New Mexico, PDNCRP resolved cases of excessive force by law enforcement officers, false arrest, racial profiling and warrantless searches of homes, including negotiating a Taser policy with Odessa police to prevent the use of this weapon against the elderly, children and pregnant women.
PDNCRP vigorously protects First Amendment guarantees of free speech and peaceful assembly, defending a San Elizario storeowner against false charges when El Paso sheriff's deputies retaliated against him for protesting immigration roadblocks and mediating a training program for El Paso Police Department officers after allegations of police assault during a peaceful rally at Montwood High.
Café Mayapan, 2000 Texas Street, will reverberate with the celebration of the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project Fiesta Fronteriza on June 20 when McAlmon will be honored for his dedication.
Tickets are available online at texascivilrightsproject.org or by calling 532-2799.
Ouisa D. Davis is an attorney at law in El Paso. E-mail: Ouisadavis@yahoo.com
http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_9567753
May 24, 2008
Roswell businessman accepts plea deal in raid case
Roswell businessman accepts plea deal in raid case
© The Associated Press
05/23/2008
Updated 05/24/2008 11:06:04 PM CDT
A top official of an Roswell aircraft painting shop will pay $300,000 in fines in an illegal immigration case.
Carl Baldwin, vice president of Dean Baldwin Painting Inc., pleaded guilty Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Robert Scott in Albuquerque to three misdemeanor counts of knowingly employing and accepting falsified documents from illegal immigrants, U.S. Attorney Gregory Fouratt said.
Baldwin admitted employing illegal immigrants from 2002 to 2005, Fouratt said.
The U.S. attorney said the fine was the largest of its kind ever imposed in an immigration case in New Mexico.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities raided the company's plant in Roswell, N.M. and arrested 15 illegal immigrants in August 2006.
Baldwin originally was charged with 10 felonies.
Federal prosecutors agreed to allow him to plead guilty to the misdemeanors instead in part so the company could continue to do business in Roswell, the Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story Friday. The federal prosecution wasn't intended to jeopardize the company's operations or the jobs of its employees, most of whom are U.S. citizens, Fouratt told the Journal.
The Journal said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Wong said a felony conviction could have made it difficult for Baldwin to keep the security clearance he needs for work at airports.
"We're pleased with the outcome and we're pleased that it is resolved," said Jason Bowles, Baldwin's attorney.
Baldwin also will be on probation for three years.
"Mr. Fouratt felt that the wrongdoing had to be punished, but didn't want to penalize the employees who were lawfully employed at the company by shutting it down," Norm Cairns, spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Albuquerque, told the Roswell Daily Record.
Baldwin and his company were ordered to pay a total of $550,000 in the case that arose from the raid on the Roswell plant. The U.S. Department of Labor administratively sanctioned Dean Baldwin Painting, ordering it to pay $250,000 for employing illegal immigrants.
The company released a statement expressing disappointment in the U.S. attorney's reference to an administrative sanction "for employing illegal aliens." The company said it has "worked hard to implement personnel practices to guard against the employment of illegal workers" and is enrolled in federal programs to help businesses screen prospective employees and check the citizenship of current ones.
Charges originally were directed solely at the company, but Baldwin was charged after prosecutors alleged he accepted falsified documents from immigrants.
The company, which has headquarters in the San Antonio suburb of Bulverde, Texas, is under contract to paint commercial and U.S. military aircraft at the Roswell International Air Center.
The Air Force temporarily suspended Dean Baldwin from receiving new contracts but said it could continue previously contracted jobs.
The business recently lost a nearly $23 million economic development and lease agreement with the Midland Development Corp. when the governing body of the Texas city rescinded the deal after learning about the immigration raid and that the company owed taxes to New Mexico.
The state of New Mexico charged last year that the company owed back taxes. Dean Baldwin challenged the claim, but lost in the state Court of Appeals.
Gov. Bill Richardson and Rep. Dan Foley, R-Roswell, worked together in February to craft a long-term plan for the business to pay more than $522,000 in taxes, interest and penalties.
___
Information from: Roswell Daily Record, http://www.roswell-record.com
http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=19715124&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=8
© The Associated Press
05/23/2008
Updated 05/24/2008 11:06:04 PM CDT
A top official of an Roswell aircraft painting shop will pay $300,000 in fines in an illegal immigration case.
Carl Baldwin, vice president of Dean Baldwin Painting Inc., pleaded guilty Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Robert Scott in Albuquerque to three misdemeanor counts of knowingly employing and accepting falsified documents from illegal immigrants, U.S. Attorney Gregory Fouratt said.
Baldwin admitted employing illegal immigrants from 2002 to 2005, Fouratt said.
The U.S. attorney said the fine was the largest of its kind ever imposed in an immigration case in New Mexico.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities raided the company's plant in Roswell, N.M. and arrested 15 illegal immigrants in August 2006.
Baldwin originally was charged with 10 felonies.
Federal prosecutors agreed to allow him to plead guilty to the misdemeanors instead in part so the company could continue to do business in Roswell, the Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story Friday. The federal prosecution wasn't intended to jeopardize the company's operations or the jobs of its employees, most of whom are U.S. citizens, Fouratt told the Journal.
The Journal said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Wong said a felony conviction could have made it difficult for Baldwin to keep the security clearance he needs for work at airports.
"We're pleased with the outcome and we're pleased that it is resolved," said Jason Bowles, Baldwin's attorney.
Baldwin also will be on probation for three years.
"Mr. Fouratt felt that the wrongdoing had to be punished, but didn't want to penalize the employees who were lawfully employed at the company by shutting it down," Norm Cairns, spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Albuquerque, told the Roswell Daily Record.
Baldwin and his company were ordered to pay a total of $550,000 in the case that arose from the raid on the Roswell plant. The U.S. Department of Labor administratively sanctioned Dean Baldwin Painting, ordering it to pay $250,000 for employing illegal immigrants.
The company released a statement expressing disappointment in the U.S. attorney's reference to an administrative sanction "for employing illegal aliens." The company said it has "worked hard to implement personnel practices to guard against the employment of illegal workers" and is enrolled in federal programs to help businesses screen prospective employees and check the citizenship of current ones.
Charges originally were directed solely at the company, but Baldwin was charged after prosecutors alleged he accepted falsified documents from immigrants.
The company, which has headquarters in the San Antonio suburb of Bulverde, Texas, is under contract to paint commercial and U.S. military aircraft at the Roswell International Air Center.
The Air Force temporarily suspended Dean Baldwin from receiving new contracts but said it could continue previously contracted jobs.
The business recently lost a nearly $23 million economic development and lease agreement with the Midland Development Corp. when the governing body of the Texas city rescinded the deal after learning about the immigration raid and that the company owed taxes to New Mexico.
The state of New Mexico charged last year that the company owed back taxes. Dean Baldwin challenged the claim, but lost in the state Court of Appeals.
Gov. Bill Richardson and Rep. Dan Foley, R-Roswell, worked together in February to craft a long-term plan for the business to pay more than $522,000 in taxes, interest and penalties.
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Information from: Roswell Daily Record, http://www.roswell-record.com
http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=19715124&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512588&rfi=8
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