RICO eyed for use against illegal aliens

CALDWELL, Idaho – A Chicago attorney with a history of filing immigration claims based on federal anti-organized crime laws is coming to southwestern Idaho, where he’s been asked by a local government to probe businesses suspected of knowingly hiring illegal aliens.

Members of the Canyon County Commission voted unanimously on Friday to sign an $11,000 contract with Johnson & Bell for Howard Foster.

Foster will come to the region in June, he said in an interview with the Associated Press.

In 2000, Foster was the first lawyer to bring to trial an immigration case using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. In that case, a Connecticut cleaning company was accused of hiring lower-paid illegal aliens to help undercut prices of competitors represented by Foster.

Canyon County officials have maintained that illegal immigrants drain public funds with welfare, medical care and law enforcement costs.

By going after companies with Foster’s help, they hope to become the first local government in the United States to use RICO to sue companies over alleged immigration abuse to recoup the county’s costs for things such as indigent medical care and jails.

“I’m going out there to talk to some people they’ve (commissioners) already identified as having worked for companies they believe are hiring illegal immigrants,” said Foster in a phone interview. “I’ll do my own factual investigation.”

At Friday’s meeting, commissioners including Robert Vasquez, who has spearheaded the campaign to target illegal immigrants in the Idaho county where nearly 19 percent of residents are Hispanic, said they have specific businesses they hope to target.

Neither the commissioners nor Foster would say which businesses are on the lists.

“I’m extremely pleased that I and my fellow commissioners could act in the best interest of the citizens of Canyon County,” Vasquez said of Friday’s vote.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, in “Commercial Cleaning Services v. Colin Service Systems,” Foster represented a group of office cleaning companies that sued a competitor for business they alleged to have lost as a result of hiring illegal aliens.