Houston-based Waste Management of Texas has agreed to forfeit more than $5.5 million and perform remedial measures for a documented pattern and practice of hiring illegal aliens at the company’s Afton, Texas, location.
The five-year investigation that led to the forfeiture was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Houston, Texas.
On Aug. 29, to avoid prosecution, Waste Management of Texas entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the federal government that required the company to forfeit $5,527,091.55, and perform remedial measures.
“The non-prosecution agreement requires Waste Management to continue its substantial remedial measures to address all past immigration violations and forfeit more than $5.5 million in proceeds gained from hiring an illegal workforce at the Afton location,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick, U.S. Southern District of Texas. “In considering whether to enter into such agreements, we must take into account the collateral consequences that a criminal prosecution would have on the company’s contracts with many municipalities across the country and the thousands of employees for the conduct of three managers at one operating unit in Houston.”
Waste Management Inc. is North America’s leading provider of waste disposal and collection headquartered in Houston. The company serves nearly 20 million municipal, commercial, industrial and residential customers. Waste Management of Texas employed at least three managers at its Afton location who actively encouraged and induced aliens to work illegally between 2003 and April 2012.
In April 2012, HSI Houston executed search warrants at the Afton, Texas, location where authorities discovered 16 illegal aliens and at least 100 employees in company records who were verified as fraudulently documented or using an identity that did not belong to them.
