Man gets house arrest, fine, for harboring illegals

A Kalispell man found guilty of harboring, transporting and unlawfully employing illegal aliens was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

Elroy Figueroa, 28, was given five months of house arrest with electronic monitoring, three years of probation, and fined $4,500.

He was convicted after a four-day trial.

Figueroa, who owns Figueroa Framers, brought three men from California to work on a construction project on U.S. 93 in Somers, according to court documents.

When agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement visited the job site, the three men twice told investigators they were Mexican citizens without valid immigration documents.

Figueroa told investigators he had an attorney trying to obtain work permits for the three men, but later admitted that he knew they were in the country illegally, according to court documents.

"What can I say, I got caught," he reportedly told investigators.

Figueroa picked the three men up for work each day, according to the federal complaint. One of them, Samuel Altamirano-Rios, lived in Figueroa's house. The other two, Ilario and Joel Altamirano-Rios, lived with their families in an Lore Lake Road apartment Figueroa paid for.

Flathead County Sheriff's deputies responded to a reported theft at the Altamirano-Rios' apartment building in February 2007.

Deputies contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after being unable to interview the apartment's occupants, who spoke no English, about the crime, according to court documents. Agents began an investigation into the immigration status of the men, which eventually led them to Figueroa.

Figueroa was told two years ago that knowingly hiring illegal aliens was a crime, according to court documents.

In September 2005, immigration officials arrested seven illegal aliens, also from Mexico, working for Figueroa at a construction site on Montana 40 east of Whitefish.

The business was offered assistance in checking the documentation of any future employees to assure their work crews were legal, according to court documents.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com