Houston chain admits guilt in alien-smuggling scheme

Nation's Restaurant News, March 6, 2006

HOUSTON -- The operators of three China Wok restaurants here have pleaded guilty to smuggling aliens into the United States and employing them at an illegally low wage of about $2.77 per hour, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The Mexican nationals paid at that rate were charged a fee to offset the costs of hiring a "coyote," or guide, to lead them across Texas' southern border, Department of Justice officials said.

Hin Kai and Alan Phu, the father and son partners in the China Wok group, could be sentenced to up to five years in prison, without parole, and fined as much as $250,000 each. Their pleas ended an investigation that began with complaints that the Phus were paying minors to work 60-hour weeks in the restaurants for $125 a month, the equivalent of 52 cents an hour. The pair paid coyotes $1,300 to $1,500 for each employee who was sneaked across the Mexican border to work at a China Wok, according to the Justice Department.