Two executives sentenced in California illegal-worker hiring

SAN DIEGO — Two executives at a company that once helped build a fence to keep illegal immigrants from crossing the Mexican border were sentenced Wednesday to six months of home confinement for hiring undocumented workers.

Mel Kay, founder, chairman and president of Golden State Fence, and manager Michael McLaughlin had pleaded guilty in federal court to knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz ordered each to serve 1,040 hours of community service and spend three years on probation.

Kay, 64, was fined $200,000 as part of a plea agreement, and McLaughlin, 42, agreed to pay $100,000.

Federal prosecutors took the rare step of seeking prison time after the men acknowledged hiring at least 10 illegal immigrants in 2004 and 2005. The charges carried a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison.

However, prosecutors were unable to find a previous case in which an employer had been sent to prison for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

"Prosecution is long overdue in this area," Moskowitz said. "Honestly, the government's efforts have been at the border, not with the employer. Obviously, the government has signaled a change with this case."

Moskowitz said he was uneasy with handing down prison time because the company did not deserve to be "the poster child" for unscrupulous employers. All of Kay's workers paid Social Security taxes and received health benefits, vacation and sick time. Many earned more than $50,000 a year.

In December, company officials acknowledged knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and agreed the firm would pay a $4.7 million fine.

In related developments:

Naturalization: The number of immigrants who became U.S. citizens reached an all-time high in 2005, and the percentage of those who did so reached its highest level in a quarter-century, according to a study released Wednesday.

Growth in legal immigration, as well as a greater tendency among foreign-born residents to embrace U.S. citizenship, accounts for the trend, the Pew Hispanic Center said in its report based on federal census and immigration data.

The nation's 12.8 million naturalized citizens made up more than half of all legal immigrants living in the United States two years ago, compared with a low of 38 percent in 1990, Pew researchers found.

Legislation: The Bush administration floated elements of an immigration plan Wednesday that would make it harder for millions of illegal immigrants to gain citizenship than under legislation passed by the Senate last year, according to officials in both parties.

These officials said the administration also suggested barring future guest workers who enter the country legally from bringing family members with them — a proposal unlikely to survive intact. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

Efforts to pass compromise legislation last year collapsed when Republican lawmakers objected to a Senate-passed bill that created a path to citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million to 12 million men women and children in the country illegally.