Business Owner Pleads Not Guilty To Harboring Migrant Workers

A West Virginia man pleaded not guilty this week to a conspiracy plan to harbor dozens of migrants who worked for his Monongalia County construction firm. 

Hector Reyes was indicted earlier this month on charges of paying for workers from various countries to be brought into the United States illegally so they could work for his company, A&M Homes, LLC. The 35-count indictment also alleges he submitted fake documents to the IRS. 

“He was paying for these individuals to be smuggled into the United States,” said William Ihlenfeld, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia. “He would pay $5,000 or $8,000, or in one instance, he paid $19,000. And then these individuals for whom he financed their arrival into the United States, owed him a debt. And then they were obligated to work for him until they were able to work off the debt.” 

Ihlenfeld said Reyes spent nearly half a million dollars over multiple years to bring workers to this region illegally. Even with that cost, Ihlenfeld said, it was a profitable scheme.

“This was a significant operation, and one that allowed him to ultimately profit more in his home construction business, because even though he had to invest money in bringing individuals into the United States, he was able to pay them less than he would if he hired West Virginians or United States citizens,” Ihlenfeld said.

Reyes faces up to 10 years in federal prison on the conspiracy charge alone. 

“This is not something we see every day. This is something that he went to great lengths to facilitate this operation. And even when he was arrested in Morgantown, we found additional evidence of Maryland driver’s licenses and false driver’s licenses that he was preparing to give to individuals so that they could use them as identification as United States citizens,” Ihlenfeld said. 

“And so he went to great lengths to be able to misrepresent the status of his business and of his employees.”

The trial is set for December.

Exit mobile version