Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

3/1/03  News Report -- The Courier-Journal (Kentucky)

Trussway Ltd., a Buckner lumber company, pleaded guilty yesterday to knowingly hiring people who were in this country illegally, according to an announcement from the U.S. Attorney's office.

The company, which makes wooden trusses for roofs, could be fined $3,000 per illegal hire as part of its plea agreement. Sentencing was set for May 19 in U.S. District Court in Louisville.

Trussway admitted hiring the undocumented immigrants between June and October of last year.

After federal immigration agents raided the Oldham County business in June, resulting in the arrest of 51 employees on charges they were in the country illegally, Trussway's general manager, Kim Krizak, had said the workers falsified documents to be able to work in the U.S.

All 51 workers -- 49 men and two women -- were Hispanic, had been in the country from two months to two years, and were living in Shelby and Oldham counties, said Jerry Phillips, an agent who participated in the raid.

He told reporters at the time that the Immigration and Naturalization Service agents had conducted an investigation before the raid.

Agents raided Trussway again in October, taking 23 Hispanic men, two juveniles and one woman into custody.

One of the affidavits filed with the request for a search warrant in the October raid said that of the 16 undocumented immigrants who returned to work after the June raid, half had returned after being deported and half had returned after posting an INS bond.