Man gets prison for hiring illegal immigrants

TACOMA: Man gets prison for hiring illegal immigrants

THE NEWS TRIBUNE

Published: June 12th, 2006 01:00 AM
A Tacoma restaurant owner has been sentenced to 10 months in prison and forced to pay more than $38,000 in back wages for employing six illegal immigrants.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents searched the home of Jian Zhong Tang, 37, last fall and found four people living there who had entered the country illegally, according to information released Friday by the United States Attorney’s Office in Seattle. A search of Tang’s restaurant, the New Great Wall, uncovered two more people who were in the country illegally. Tang employed all six people at the restaurant.

Tang told investigators he found the workers through employment agencies in New York, Illinois and California and that they never filled out any paperwork before they began to work for him or proved their legal status in the country. He said he paid them cash. The workers said they were paid less than state and federal minimum wage, and worked 10 to 12 hours per day.

In February, Yan Shu, 31, the owner of the Rainbow Buffet in Tacoma, was sentenced to a year and one day in prison after federal agents found eight illegal immigrants living at her University Place home. Shu employed the people at her restaurant.

Paul Sand, The News Tribune