Mexican Restaurant Owners Plead Guilty to Hiring Undocumented Aliens and False Statements

Contact: Julia M. Lipez
James W. Chapman, Jr.
Assistant United States Attorneys
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Portland, Maine: United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that
brothers, Guillermo Fuentes, 38, of Westbrook, Maine and Hector Fuentes, 40, of Waterville,
Maine, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to knowingly hiring 10 or more
undocumented aliens in a 12-month period and making false statements to federal agents.

Court records reveal that the employment charge relates to hiring practices at the Fajita
Grill restaurant in Westbrook. The false statement charge arises out of post-arrest statements the
defendants made to law enforcement officers in September 2011 regarding the hiring practices at
the Fajita Grill and at the Cancun Mexican Restaurant in Waterville, in which they falsely stated,
among other things, that federally required documentation regarding the immigration status of
employees had been properly completed.

The defendants face up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both. They will be
sentenced after the completion of a pre-sentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation
Office.

The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s
Homeland Security Investigations and the United States Department of Labor, Office of
Inspector General.