Asplundh pleads guilty to hiring undocumented immigrants

Asplundh Tree Experts, whose orange tree-trimming trucks are well-known in this region, pleaded guilty Sept. 28 to unlawfully employing illegal immigrants over a fouryear period, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Headquartered in the Willow Grove section of Horsham Township, Asplundh was accused of concocting a scheme “in which the highest levels of Asplundh management remained willfully blind, while lower level managers hired and rehired employees they knew to be ineligible to work in the United States,” a USAO news release says.

Following the guilty plea during a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge John R. Padova, the company was ordered to forfeit $80 million plus an additional $15 million in connection with a separate civil settlement agreement to satisfy claims arising out of the company’s failure to comply with immigration law, the USAO said. The company is also required to abide by an Administrative Compliance Agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations Philadelphia.

The $95 million recovery represents the largest payment ever levied in an immigration case, according to the release.

The charges against Asplundh, described as one of the largest privately-held companies in the United States, arose from a six-year audit and investigation by Homeland Security.

The investigation revealed that from 2010 to December 2014 the company decentralized its hiring so that lower level supervisors were able to hire and rehire employees, “accepting identification documents it knew to be false and fraudulent,” without the direct knowledge of upper management, according to court documents.

Hiring was done by word of mouth, allowing the managers, incentivized to skirt immigration law, to hire workers who were readily available and maximize productivity and profit, the document says. With a motivated work force, including unauthorized aliens willing to be relocated and respond to weather-related events around the nation, the industry leader in tree trimming and brush clearance for power and gas lines had crews that were easily mobilized “that enabled them to dominate the market,” the document says.

“Today marks the end of a lengthy investigation by ICE Homeland Security Investigations into hiring violations committed by the highest levels of Asplundh’s organization,” said ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan in the release. “Today’s judgment sends a strong, clear message to employers who scheme to hire and retain a workforce of illegal immigrants: We will find you and hold you accountable.

“Violators who manipulate hiring laws are a pull factor for illegal immigration, and we will continue to take action to remove this magnet,” Horman said.

In a statement on the Asplundh website, Chairman and CEO Scott Asplundh says the company was charged with “one misdemeanor count of accepting fraudulent employee documentation prior to 2014,” and that immediate corrective action was taken in 2015, when it first learned of the investigation.

“The circumstances and practices of the past, which gave rise to the investigation, have been addressed and eliminated going forward,” it says.

The case was investigated by ICE and Homeland Security Investigations in Philadelphia and is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh A. Davison and Assistant U.S. Attorney L.C. Wright.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Asplundh Tree Expert Co. employees prepare equipment Jan. 9, 2011, for a winter storm at a staging area on the Mississippi State Fairgrounds in Jackson, Miss.