Some past instances of illegal employment in Carson City:

• A Carson City business owner was fined $119,000 in Reno federal court October 2003 for knowingly employing 63 illegal immigrants at his Lockheed Way manufacturing plant, Stonewear Inc.

Business owner Ben VandenBossche pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of unlawfully employing illegal aliens. Managers Ray Bowers and Eugene Soulier were fined after they pleaded guilty to one count of "reckless disregard" of federal immigration laws. The bust was described as the largest operation at a single site in Northern Nevada. The workers were taken to Washoe County Jail before deportation.

• In 2002, the U.S. Labor Department ordered five Carson City companies - Sierra Truss, Eagle Valley Golf Course, LSP Products, Taco Bell and Wyman-Gordon - to pay back wages to their illegal workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. When employers are investigated and illegal workers are found, the workers must be fired, but they are still owed back wages.