Family Sentenced, Fined in Hiring Probe

An entire San Fernando family was fined and sentenced to probation on Monday for hiring illegal immigrants to work for their construction and building supply companies, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Brothers Abel Gonzalez Jr., 35, and Alberto Gonzalez, 34, were fined $9,000 and sentenced to five years’ probation after they pleaded guilty last November to federal charges that they hired workers without asking for eligibility documents or accepting documents they knew were fake, said U.S. Atty. spokeswoman Carole Levitzky.

Their parents--Abel Gonzalez Sr., 62, and Evangelina Gonzalez, 60, also were ordered by District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew to pay $9,000 in fines and were sentenced to two years’ probation, Levitzky said. The couple told the judge they assisted in the hiring of illegal workers by providing them nearby housing.

Prosecutors alleged that the family and its companies--Arroyo Building Materials and AAA Gonzalez Construction Inc.--hired illegal workers for several years to work at residential and commercial construction sites across the San Fernando Valley. In addition to the personal fines levied against the Gonzalez family, the companies were fined $16,500, Levitzky said.

Federal law requires companies to verify the eligibility of all employees to work in the United States. The Gonzalez family was indicted after an investigation by a task force of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Labor Department and the Contractors State License Board.

Calls to the companies were not returned Monday. But AAA Gonzalez Construction was listed with an expired license by the contractors board, a division of the state Department of Consumer Affairs that regulates construction companies.