Bakers on Texas-Mexican Border Are Found Guilty of Harboring Illegal Workers

New York Times

2 days ago

A federal jury on Wednesday found a Texas couple who owns a bakery on the Texas-Mexico border guilty of harboring undocumented workers, months after their beloved shop became snared in President Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown.
Federal authorities had accused the couple, Leonardo Baez, a father of seven, and his wife, Nora Alicia Avila, both immigrants from Mexico and green card holders, of knowingly employing and giving shelter to undocumented workers. The case was one of the first brought against business owners as Immigration and Customs Enforcement was ramping up arrests. of undocumented workers.
On Wednesday, a jury in the border city of Brownsville, Texas, sided with the federal government after a three-day trial that pitted two pillars of the community in Los Fresno, a small border town, against the Trump administration and its immigration policies. In addition to the harboring charge, the couple was found guilty of conspiring to transport undocumented immigrants.
Sentencing was set for November. The two face up to 10 years in prison and the loss of their legal status.
Their 'actions not only violate federal immigration laws but also exploit vulnerable individuals for profit,' said Craig Larrabee, the special agent in charge with Homeland Security Investigations in San Antonio, in a statement. 'This conviction sends a clear message: those who engage in human smuggling and harboring for financial benefit will be investigated, prosecuted and held accountable.'
Sylvia Gonzalez-Gorman, a political scientist and immigration expert at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, worried about the precedent for what she called a selective prosecution.
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