Houston business owner sentenced for harboring illegals

The owner and two managers of a Houston-based used clothing exporting business were recently sentenced to prison for conspiring to harbor illegal immigrants. Mubarik “Baco” Kahlon, the owner of Action Rags USA Inc., was sentenced to two years probation and fined $6,000. Managers Cirila “Cici” Baron and Mayra Herrera-Gutierrez were sentenced to 11 months in prison.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) section investigated Action Rags for a year before raiding it in June of 2008. During the raid, ICE agents arrested 166 undocumented workers from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

According to the U.S. attorney, the workers provided false employment verification documents to Action Rags, which allegedly knew the documents were falsified.