Companies belonging to Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and his brother worked with a Houston man to bring hundreds of Mexicans to work in the south, our media partners at The Advocate/Times Picayune report.
Two companies belonging to Landry and one belonging to his brother Benjamin worked with Houston labor broker Marco Pesquera to bring more than 1,000 Mexican workers in to do jobs, including welding and pipe-fitting at the liquefied natural gas terminal in Cameron Parish, the newspapers report.
That broker later pleaded guilty in federal court to visa fraud unrelated to his work with the Landry companies, the papers report.
The newspaper reports that there’s no evidence that either Landry brother knew that Pesquera was under criminal investigation when they contracted with him, and neither of the Landry brothers nor their associates have been charged in the case.
Here's a link showing the documentary evidence the newspapers relied on.
A Landry spokesman called the story "bogus," and Landry's brother released this video.
That terminal was lauded by state officials as a boon for southwest Louisiana, promising to create thousands of jobs for an area that has lost oil industry jobs over the past several years.
According to the story, the partners set out to make millions by winning federal approval to bring in hundreds of skilled Mexican construction workers to help build the terminal in Cameron Parish. The effort involved three firms with ties to the attorney general: two firms owned by Jeff Landry, and one owned by his brother, Benjamin Landry, and a business associate, documents and emails show.
In a Facebook post Friday, Jeff Landry responded to The Advocate's story, saying, "No matter what the liberal media falsely throws at me, I will continue to speak out against and fight illegal immigration."
To see a timeline of related events, click here.
To read the whole story, click here.
