Judge orders couple out of U.S. for running work camp

Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 18, 2006 at midnight

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A Hudson couple will be deported to Mexico for running a work camp for illegal immigrants, then keeping a portion of their pay in exchange for helping them enter the United States.

Moises Rodriguez, 65, and Maria Rodriguez, 61, were arrested last year on federal charges of transporting and harboring illegal immigrants and employing smuggled aliens.

U.S. District Court Judge Edward W. Nottingham today sentenced the Rodriguezes to time served, a total of about 11 months. He also ordered them each to pay a $2,000 fine and to be transferred to the custody of federal immigration officials.

Nottingham also sentenced the Rodriguezes' son, Javier Rodriguez, 39, to three years of probation, including six months of home detention. According to court documents, Javier Rodriguez would supervise the workers while they worked in area fields and lived in a trailer near the barracks outside Hudson where the workers were housed.

Attorneys for Moises and Maria Rodriguez said the couple came to the United States more than 30 years ago, that they received amnesty in the 1980s, and that they did not realize the severity of their crimes.

"If you would have asked her at the time, 'Was this a big deal?' she probably would not have thought it was a big deal," said Michael Litman, attorney for Maria Rodriguez.

Before their sentencing, all three defendants told Nottingham they were remorseful and would accept whatever punishment they received.

"I didn't know we were wrong," Javier Rodriguez said.

Outside the courtroom, some of Moises and Maria Rodriguez's children cried, saying returning to Mexico will be difficult for their parents. Moises is going blind and cannot work, they said. All of their family — eight children and 20 grandchildren — are in the United States.

They described their parents as "honest, hard-working people" who are not alone in hiring illegal immigrants. They also said Colorado's farmers depend on workers like those the Rodriguezes hired.

"Who's going to do the field work?" daughter Leticia Lozano of Henderson asked. "Just the Mexican is going to do it."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Holloway said the Rodriguez family had assisted the government in its ongoing investigation of employers of illegal immigrants. He called the sentence fair.

"Regardless of where you stand on whatever immigration debate is out there, it's clear people who endeavor to profit off exploiting both people of this country and others can't be allowed," Holloway said.

A local immigration attorney tipped off authorities about the illegal work camp in 2004, according to court documents.

Federal immigration agents interviewed seven illegal immigrants who said they had come to the United States from Mexico with help from smugglers, or "coyotes," lined up by Moises Rodriguez.

Rodriguez and his son then met the group in Phoenix and drove them to Hudson, they said.

The workers paid Rodriguez between $1,100 and $1,300 per person — money that was taken from their paychecks until they had paid in full, they said. They also showed agents pay stubs that indicated several deductions had been taken from their checks, though none of them had valid Social Security numbers and the Rodriguez family had not reported the wages on their tax forms.

In early 2005, a government informant approached Moises and Javier Rodriguez about hiring some workers "who were not lazy and willing to work hard."

According to court documents, the informant met Moises Rodriguez at the barracks in rural Hudson where the immigrants live. Rodriguez told the informant he gets workers from Mexico, and that they work 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

On Aug. 1, 2005, Rodriguez told the informant he had picked up 15 more illegal immigrants in Phoenix. He said he paid the coyote about $800 per worker to bring them over the border to Phoenix, and that he would charge each immigrant $1,300.

Agents also witnessed Javier Rodriguez and another man who has since been deported, Ignacio German Juarez, load the workers into trucks and buses throughout the spring and summer. The two men would drive the workers to fields throughout northern Colorado, where they would supervise as the immigrants worked in the fields.

In October, agents raided the Rodriguez home as well as the barracks. Court documents show they found thousands of pages of records, including pay statements issued by Maria Rodriguez, worker rosters and receipts for hotels and coyotes.

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