Federal judge slams feds for not charging illegal immigrants' employers
By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer
August 14, 2009
A federal judge in Alexandria gave no prison time to a man convicted of harboring illegal immigrants for profit, saying prosecutors should have targeted the wealthy families in McLean and Potomac who employed the illegals he provided.
"This is why we have problems with illegal immigrants in this country," said U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee. "There is unequal enforcement of the laws, particularly when it comes to employers."
Prosecutors had argued that Soripada Lubis of Falls Church should face nearly five years in prison for harboring the 20 women who lived with him over eight years and not letting them leave. In court documents and in arguments made in court Thursday, prosecutors painted a picture of Lubis as abusive. Relying on statements from eight of the women, prosecutors said Lubis sexually abused two of them and threatened to kill their families if they fled.
But Lee said he didn't agree that the women had been victims of "human trafficking." The judge sentenced Lubis to three years of probation and required him to pay back $2,000 he took from two of the women.
Lubis pleaded guilty to harboring illegal immigrants for financial gain in February. Agents pulled eight women from his house in an October raid. The women, according to testimony, are still in the United States and have not been charged with breaking immigration laws. Some of them are still working for their employers and have received special visas for trafficking victims who testify in criminal cases.
Lee said he was "troubled by how in this case I'm being asked to send [Lubis] to prison when [the women] stayed with Miss [Ellen] Ottenstein, Miss [Jill] Martin and Miss [Brauna] Schwartz for five days a week and only weekends with you." In court documents, prosecutors listed 50 employers in McLean and Potomac who hired women from Lubis for domestic work.
Ottenstein said in court Thursday that she knew the woman she hired from Lubis was an illegal immigrant. The woman lived and worked at Ottenstein's house in Potomac for the past seven years. Ottenstein eventually helped the woman leave Lubis' house. Later, when Ottenstein learned of the charges pending against Lubis, she called the FBI to report her employee's case. Ottenstein said no one from the government expressed concern that she had acted outside the law.
