Opinion ID: 3051440
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Canyon County’s Complaint

Text: The County’s first amended complaint (“complaint”) names as defendants Syngenta Seeds, Inc. (“Syngenta”), Sorrento Lactalis, Inc. (“Sorrento”), Swift Beef Company (“Swift”), Harris Moran Seed Company (“Harris”), and Albert Pacheco. Because we are reviewing the dismissal of the complaint, we assume that the factual allegations of the complaint, summarized below, are true. According to the complaint, each of the four defendant companies knowingly employed and/or harbored large numbers of illegal immigrants within Canyon County, in an “Illegal Immigrant Hiring Scheme.”2 The companies’ actions have damaged the County because the County “has paid millions of dollars for health care services and criminal justice services for the illegal immigrants who have been employed by the defendants in violation of federal law.” The individual defendant, Pacheco, has engaged in a policy of “Wilful Blindness and Harboring” of illegal immigrants, in his role as director 2 Each defendant apparently conducted its own separate scheme, as there are no allegations that the defendants cooperated with each other in any way. 2740 CANYON COUNTY v. SYNGENTA SEEDS of a local social service agency, which has resulted in similarly increased costs for the County. Defendants Syngenta and Harris are both growers and processors of agricultural commodities. The County claims that both companies have deliberately hired hundreds of workers who the companies knew were not authorized to work in the United States. Working with a farm labor contractor, Ag Services, the companies agreed to employ undocumented immigrants supplied by Ag Services. The contractor acts as a “front” for Syngenta and Harris: in addition to supplying workers, the contractor channels the workers’ wages to them, completes fraudulent I-9 employment eligibility forms for the workers, and supplies the workers with false documents. The companies have thus allegedly violated both 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(3),3 which criminalizes knowing hiring of more than ten unauthorized aliens during a single year, and 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii),4 which criminalizes harboring of unauthorized aliens. The County further alleges that Syngenta and Harris have each formed an “association-in-fact enterprise” with the farm labor contractor, and that the companies’ sustained custom of hiring and/or harboring undocumented workers amounts to a pattern of racketeering activity. As a consequence, the companies have allegedly violated 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), by partici- 3 Under 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(3)(A), it is illegal for any person “during any 12-month period, [to] knowingly hire[ ] for employment at least 10 individuals with actual knowledge that the individuals are aliens described in subparagraph (B) . . . .” An alien described in subparagraph B “is an alien who— (i) is an unauthorized alien (as defined in section 1324a(h)(3) of this title), and (ii) has been brought into the United States in violation of this subsection.” 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(3)(B). 4 Under 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii), it is illegal for any person to “knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, . . . harbor[ ] . . . or attempt[ ] to . . . harbor . . . such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation.” CANYON COUNTY v. SYNGENTA SEEDS 2741 pating in the conduct of an enterprise’s affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity. The complaint contains similar allegations against Sorrento, a cheese processor, and Swift, a meat packer, the only difference being that Sorrento and Swift have allegedly formed “association-in-fact” enterprises with a different labor contractor, Labor Ready. The County’s claim against defendant Pacheco is distinct, as it is not based on the hiring of undocumented immigrants. Instead, the County alleges that Pacheco, in his position as Executive Director of the Idaho Migrant Council, has directed his staff to assist immigrant workers in fraudulently applying for public benefits, despite Pacheco’s knowledge that the workers lacked legal status in the United States and were ineligible for such benefits. In directing his staff to take these actions, Pacheco has allegedly committed a pattern of racketeering activity, by knowingly harboring undocumented immigrants in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii). Thus, based on his association with the Migrant Council, which is asserted to be a RICO enterprise, Pacheco has allegedly violated 18 U.S.C. §§ 1962(c) and 1962(d).5