Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

2/22/00 News Report -- Sacramento Bee

Longtime Stockton labor contractor Luis Bautista was sentenced Wednesday to the seven months and six days he has spent in jail since his arrest on charges of employing, harboring and transporting undocumented Mexican field hands and restaurant workers. Bautista, 67, who immigrated from Mexico 40 years ago and worked in the fields while gaining permanent resident status, will be turned over to immigration authorities for deportation proceedings.

"It doesn't look good," defense attorney Robert Wilson said Wednesday in describing his contacts with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Wilson said that INS lawyers have informed him the offense to which Bautista pleaded guilty in December -- harboring illegal immigrants -- is "a per se aggravated felony which will result in deportation." Bautista admitted renting a house he owns in Stockton to employees of his business, F. Bautista Farm Labor, even though he knew they had entered the United States illegally. He acknowledged that his purpose was to shield the workers from detection by immigration authorities. Though not renouncing his client's guilty plea, Wilson presented a different perspective in a sentencing memorandum filed a week ago in Sacramento federal court. "Mr. Bautista provided decent and humane living accommodations for a few people 'he knew or should have known' were illegal immigrants," the attorney said in the memo. "Interestingly enough, the INS has not arrested the numerous high-level public officials who have, over the years, acknowledged they have hired illegal domestic workers and 'harbored' them in their own homes. "Recognizing the reality of the situation, bipartisan support exists in Congress for a registration system allowing illegal immigrants to work in the United States." Bautista's daughter and brother-in-law were earlier fined and placed on probation after pleading guilty to conspiring with Bautista "to regularly, repeatedly, and intentionally hire illegal aliens." Francisca de Inocencio, 30, is the registered owner and was office manager of F. Bautista Farm Labor, but her father ran the company, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Camil Skipper.

Francisco Figueroa, 64, handled the payroll, the prosecutor said.

Copyright 2001 Sacramento Bee.