Peekskill's largest employer faces immigration crackdown

• Owners says ICE found that 339 of the company%27s 575 employees had questionable documentation
• Advocates are disappointed President Obama won%27t take administrative action on immigration
• Company president Bruce Botchman wonders how the business will survive if it loses 300 employees

Business is booming at White Plains Linen, the metropolitan region's leading hospitality laundry in Peekskill, which added 70 employees this year to meet growing demands from the finest restaurants in the Lower Hudson Valley and New York City.

But a crackdown by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could imperil the future of the family business founded in 1938 by Polish immigrant Louis Botchman, and run since 1976 by his son, Bruce.

Bruce Botchman told Tax Watch that his attorney was notified on Sept. 5 that an ICE audit of the company's I-9 forms, on which employees provide documentation to certify their employment status, turned up widespread problems.

He said ICE found questionable documentation for 339 of the company's 575 employees. Once he gets served with papers at the Peekskill plant, his workers will have 10 days to address ICE's concerns, or lose their jobs. That had yet to happen by Thursday.

His clients include the 21 Club, Le Bernardin, Four Seasons, and restaurants owned by culinary superstars Mario Batali, Danny Meyer and the prominent Westchester caterer Abigail Kirsch.

"This could put us out of business in a few days," Botchman said Monday. "We need the process to be slowed down. We can't do it in 10 days. And the impact is going to be substantial. You can't replace them overnight. It's more than 300 workers, and their families who depend on their income."

ICE spokesman Luis Martinez declined comment.

Botchman said his company pays an average of $10 an hour, and provides health insurance and pensions. About 500 workers are represented by SEIU's Laundry, Distribution and Food Service Joint Board. Wilfredo Larancuent, the board's co-manager, said a labor lawyer would meet soon with the employees.

"This is a fishing expedition by ICE," said Larancuent. "They look at the names, the Social Security numbers, and compare them with their own records. If there is a discrepancy, the person has to straighten it out."

At times, the issues can be minor, such as the transposition of a name, which can be easily resolved, said Pace University law professor Vanessa Merton. But more serious transgressions, such as the falsification of government documents, will result in job termination, and possible deportation, she said. Social Security deposits on behalf of workers with fake documents get forfeited to the U.S. Treasury.

"If someone has no legal status, and bought the documentation on the street corner, they could be deported, with a permanent bar to applying for a visa," Merton said. "The government is very unhappy when people falsify any information."

It's not White Plains Linen's first run-in with federal investigation. In 2003, Botchman pleaded guilty in a conspiracy involving eliminating competition in the linen industry, and was fined $3.5 million. The company, Peekskill's largest private employer, expanded in recent years, after leaving its downtown location for John Walsh Boulevard on Charles Point. It's now across the street from Wheelabrator's trash-to-energy plant and since 2013 has piped in steam to cut the company's carbon foot-print by 90 percent.

The plant was abuzz with work on Monday. Trucks from Botchman's 50-vehicle fleet arrived with dirty linen from the weekend. The 200-pound bags were hoisted to tracks that run along the ceiling, and brought to the sorting room, where women lined up at a conveyor belt to separate the sizes and colors.

The linen gets washed in a line of massive commercial washers, and brought to the pressing room, which has lines of machines to iron and fold thousands of napkins, tablecloths and towels. Then they get sealed in plastic and prepared for shipment back to the restaurants.

The ICE audit comes as Congress remains stalemated on immigration reform, which could have provided a pathway to permanent status for people living in the country illegally. President Barack Obama in June raised the hopes of immigration reform advocates by announcing he would take executive action by summer's end, to do administratively what Congress could not muster a majority to do by statute.

But last week, the president said he would delay action until after the November election.

"It's infuriating what they are doing in Peekskill, when we were waiting for President Obama to deliver on his promise to provide administrative relief by the end of the summer," said Westchester Hispanic Coalition Executive Director Graciela Heymann. "He just capitulated."

That has left Botchman, who hasn't slept well for a week, searching for answers.

"This is my baby," said Botchman. "I built it. These people are my family. I was crying all weekend. I didn't know what to do. This could be the end of me."

Twitter: @davidmckay415

Audits of employers' I-9 forms are part of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's national effort to target employers who violate employment laws or engage in abuse or exploitatation of workers. In 2013, ICE conducted 3,127 inspections of I-9 forms, and initiated 1,905 worksite cases. Those inquiries led to 868 adminstrative arrests, 306 criminal arrests, and fines totalling $8.8 million, according to an ICE report.

Documents that qualify you for employment include those that establish identity and provide employment authorization. Five documents qualify on both counts: a US passport, permanent resident card, foreign passport with temporary I-551 stamp, or a foreign passport and Form I-94 with an endorsement of nonimmigrant status.

If you lack those documents, then two documents that establish identity and employment authorization are needed. Identity documents include a drivers license, school ID with photo, voter registration card, ID card from a government agency with a picture and personal information, or a US military ID card. Documents establishing employment authorization include a Social Security card, certification of birth abroad issued by US State Department, US birth certificate, US citizen ID card, US ID card for resident citizen, or employment authorization from US Department of Homeland Security.