A Pennsylvania resident has pleaded guilty to harboring illegal immigrants for financial gain in a town that drew national attention last year over an influx of Haitian migrants, the Department of Justice announced this week.
Acting U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti said Andy Ha has pleaded guilty to charges of harboring illegal aliens for financial gain and failing to pay more than $3 million in employment taxes.
The DOJ announced that Ha owned a staffing agency that provided workers to companies in the area of Charleroi, Pennsylvania. As part of that, he paid over 25 workers who were not legally authorized to be in the U.S. to stay in a former hotel and paid for them to be transported to and from work. The nationality of those workers was not stated.
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Additionally, he is accused of providing the individual who prepared the business' tax returns with spreadsheets listing only workers in the U.S. legally, which authorities said led to a tax loss of at least $3.1 million.
"The defendant broke the law by harboring and employing individuals not authorized to be in the United States," Rivetti said. "In addition, defendant Ha cost the U.S. government millions of dollars through his failure to pay taxes related to his business."
"This investigation highlights the commitment of HSI Pittsburgh to protecting our communities from those who seek to exploit undocumented workers for their personal gain," said Edward Owens, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Philadelphia.
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Sentencing is scheduled for July. The investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service, HSI and Pennsylvania State Police.
President Donald Trump had pointed to Charleroi as an example of a town that had been hit by an influx of Haitian migrants arriving under the Biden administration, including under a parole process for four nationalities, including Haiti.
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"The small 4,000-person town of Charleroi, Pennsylvania, have you heard of it?" Trump said in September in Tucson, Arizona. "What a beautiful name, but it's not so beautiful now. It has experienced a 2,000% increase in the population of Haitian migrants under Kamala Harris."
Fox News Digital reported from Charleroi in October, and found that some officials and residents believed the impact was exaggerated and the influx had revitalized the town, but others disagreed and slammed what they described as an "invasion."
