Officials with the United States Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Mississippi announced the indictment of Jose Humberto Gonzalez, Human Resources Manager for Howard Industries, Inc., in Laurel.

Gonzalez was charged in a 25-count indictment with conspiracy and employee verification fraud in connection with the employment of illegal aliens at the company’s transformer manufacturing facility in Laurel after an immigration sweep of the facility last August. The sweep saw 595 illegal aliens placed on administrative arrest. Of those arrested, nine were charged criminally with aggravated identity theft and ultimately pled guilty to federal identity fraud charges.

Michael A. Holt, Special Agent-in-Charge of ICE’s Office of Investigations in New Orleans said, “This indictment demonstrates firsthand how ICE agents use our investigative tools to pursue those who take advantage of illegal labor for personal profit.”

In the indictment, Gonzalez was charged with conspiring to commit multiple offenses against the United States, including encouraging illegal aliens to reside in the United States, attempting to conceal and harbor illegal aliens, and falsely attesting to the validity of employment-related

documents.

As part of the conspiracy, Gonzalez would submit Social Security numbers provided to him by applicants at the Laurel plant to the Social

Security Administration to verify their numbers and, after being notified by the Social Security Administration that the Social Security numbers of such applicants were not found to be valid, he would nonetheless hire and continue to employ such persons.

In addition to the conspiracy charge, Gonzalez was charged with 24 counts of falsely certifying to the employment eligibility of job applicants and employees.

Gonzalez faces a maximum of five years of imprisonment on each count. In addition to possible imprisonment, he faces a maximum fine of $250,000, and three years of supervised release for each count.