The sentencing of a Hudson couple accused by federal prosecutors of illegally transporting farm workers into the country from Mexico and collecting “smuggling fees” from their pay has been postponed.
U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham delayed sentencing indefinitely Friday to allow time for materials needed by the defense to be translated into Spanish, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Jeff Dorschner said.
Moises and Maria Rodriguez pleaded guilty in May to illegally smuggling and harboring scores of immigrant workers who were kept at dilapidated barracks.
Foremen bused them from the barracks to farms where they picked crops for 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Supervisors deducted “smuggling fees” totaling $1,100 to $1,300 from the workers’ pay.
In October, when federal agents raided the fenced barracks compound at Hudson, 30 miles northeast of Denver, they found automatic weapons and cocaine in a trailer where a supervisor stayed, court records show.
This is one of several recent cases around the country involving smuggled foreign workers who labored under financial duress, owing money to those who sneaked them into the United States, investigators say.
