Contractor sentenced in immigration raids

PROVIDENCE—A janitorial contractor whose workers were arrested during immigration raids last year on Rhode Island courthouses was sentenced Friday to confinement, probation and a $10,000 fine.

Vincent D’Elia pleaded guilty in October to knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, a misdemeanor.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mary Lisi gave D’Elia three years probation and the fine. He also must spend 60 days living in a federally run center, where he can leave for work but must be monitored by an ankle bracelet.

Lisi intended to make an example of D’Elia and send a message to other companies that repeatedly violating immigration and tax laws would not be tolerated, she said.

“This is a crime against the United States, against all citizens of the United States,“ Lisi told D’Elia. “This was corrupt from the inside out.“

D’Elia’s Falcon Maintenance Co., of Johnston, started small and built up to a work force of hundreds, according to attorneys and court documents.

But for about five years, D’Elia routinely circumvented documentation provisions in federal immigration law.

D’Elia used a go-between to submit employment paperwork with fake Social Security Numbers, lied about using the federal E-Verify database to confirm the legal work status of new hires and ignored
warnings from other employees that some of his workers were undocumented, prosecutors have said.

Half of the 273 workers he employed between 2005 and the raids in July 2008 were allegedly undocumented. And prosecutors say all but five of his 23 courthouse workers were illegal immigrants.

In a brief statement, D’Elia apologized to the court, the state of Rhode Island and his family.

D’Elia could have received six months in prison, according to federal law.

Defense attorney Thomas Briody argued D’Elia’s life had been essentially ruined. He had returned, attorneys said, to where he began: cleaning businesses with his wife.

Lisi acknowledged that D’Elia, who is supporting several family members and has no criminal record, had agreed in his plea deal to cooperate with the Internal Revenue Service to pay more than
$100,000 in taxes he should have withheld from employee’s pay.

But she said D’Elia cut corners on a massive scale.

“By outward appearances this defendant was a great success,“ Lisi said. “You can’t have true success without honor.“

D’Elia is to turn himself and begin his sentence on April 24.

Attorneys for both sides declined to comment on the sentence.