Unauthorized U.S. residents by countries of origin (as of January 2007)

Mexico

2 El Salvador

3 Guatemala

4 Philippines

5 China

6 Honduras

7 Korea

8 India

9 Brazil

10 Ecuador

11 Other nations

Total

540,000

500,000

290,000

280,000

230,000

220,000

190,000

160,000

2, 100,000

11,780,000

Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics

continued from page 44

can’t just pick up the phone and ask Wortman. He’s sitting behind iron bars, doing 30 months for, among other things, knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

But we can — and did — ask Bill Weinrich, Wortman’s buddy from the seventh grade who worked for Cloudburst 1984-1998. Last June, Weinrich purchased much of Cloudburst’s customer list and some of its equipment and vehicles, and formed BWJW Enterprises, which does business as Cloudburst Lawn & Sprinkler Co.

“It’s tough to think that David’s in prison and will be for at least two years,” Weinrich says. “He’s married and has two kids in college.”

Surprisingly, Weinrich says the company hasn’t lost any business due to the September 2007 raid by ICE and Wortman’s subsequent conviction last December.

“All of Cloudburst’s customers know what happened, but everyone’s just concerned about David because he really was a good guy,” Weinrich says. “David just got caught up in this labor thing — trying to mow 500 lawns a week and not being able to find good, legal, local help,” Weinrich says.

How does Weinrich do it? He doesn’t — at least not all of it. He focuses on the irrigation business.

“Cloudburst’s lawn care equipment and customer base was sold to three or four local companies because I didn’t want it, and not one of them could have handled the workload themselves — legally, that is,” Weinrich adds.

Hirer beware

Pace claims HMI “went above and beyond all applicable employment requirements,” and used the federal government’s E-Verify to confirm the employment eligibility of every worker it hired after Jan. 1, 2008 — the day she says it became legal for HMI to use the system.

Pace warns landscape contractors that while E-Verify can provide a necessary background check, it is not a silver screening bullet.

“Several of my corporate clients across
the country have had new hires pass E-Verify,

continued on page 48

ILLUS TRATION BY: ISTOCK IN TERNATIONAL INC.

TIMELINE OF TROUBLING TALES Following are eight incidents that Landscape Management uncovered involving undocumented and/or illegal immigrants and the Green Industry:

Sept. 6, 2007 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided Grand Island, NE-based Cloudburst Underground Sprinkler Systems (also dba Cloudburst Lawn & Sprinkler), which ironically had done landscape/maintenance work for the local government since 2002. During the raid, ICE arrested 19 Cloudburst employees on suspicion of violating immigration laws. One month later, then-owner David E. Wortman pleaded guilty to harboring at least 26 illegal aliens between October 2002 and September 2007 — hiring the individuals without requesting any identification or proof they were eligible to work lawfully in the United States. Wortman further admitted to cashing customer checks totaling $437,632 in such a way as to avoid federal reporting requirements for cash transactions totaling $10,000 or more. On 45 separate and consecutive occasions between September 2005 and May 2007, Wortman cashed groups of customer checks ranging from 22 to 108 checks in amounts totaling more than $9,000 but less than $10,000. He also was charged with failing to pay overtime to employees as required by federal law. On Dec. 10, 2008, Wortman was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $236,729 to the federal government and pay an additional $200,903 to the Department of Labor so it could reimburse current and former Cloudburst employees for their overtime.