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New York Contractors’ Bankruptcy Complicates Immigrants’ Claims to Stolen Wages

Cassway Contracting Corporation and its subcontractor Mario Hernández Infante, who was in charge of recruiting laborers for the company’s projects, may have successfully avoided the responsibility of paying immigrant workers their wages. 

The reason: they declared bankruptcy.

The corporation built some of the most expensive and exclusive condos and buildings in New York City. This includes the Lantern House, a pair of towers alongside the High Line in Chelsea that reached the highest projected sellout price of any condo approved by the attorney general’s office in 2020: $832 million.

Yet immigrant laborers who did the actual work of constructing these buildings say they endured weeks without payment and their wages are still stolen.

Immigrant workers tell their experience: Dolores Correa, an immigrant who fled her native El Salvador to escape domestic violence and poverty, said Cassway Contracting and Hernández Infante “defrauded lots of people.” 

She was hired by Hernández Infante in 2019 to plaster walls for Cassway Contracting. She worked for them for two weeks without pay after being promised weekly payments.

“I did not have money for my kids or anyone to turn to for help,” said Correa, a single mother of two children. 

Claro Velázquez, an immigrant from Honduras and father of four children, was also recruited by Hernández Infante to work for Cassway Contracting at the Lantern House. He said he did not receive any payment for two weeks. 

Some background about the alleged debtors: Allegations against Cassway Contracting of stolen overtime pay go as far back as 2012, while accusations against Hernández Infante of entirely avoiding to pay workers date back to 2019.

James Cassidy established Cassway Contracting Corporation in 2004, and declared bankruptcy in March 2022. Mario Hernández Infante declared bankruptcy in 2018. 

Hernández Infante has also operated businesses that have opened and closed under different names and different locations — all tactics known to be used to evade paying overdue wages and avoid accountability, according to advocates and labor attorneys.

Many workers were hurt by Cassway: “Construction companies use this [declaring bankruptcy] tactic to avoid fulfilling their legal responsibilities,” said Karen Vargas, worker rights coordinator of New Immigrant Community Empowerment.

NICE has documented the cases of 36 laborers — all of them immigrants from Latin America — whose wages, an estimated $110,000, were stolen by Cassway Contracting and Hernández Infante. 

The number of workers denouncing stolen wages is just the “tip of the iceberg,” as many more laborers were probably defrauded, and the actual amount stolen is likely much higher, said Vargas.

Charles Joseph, a New York attorney expert on wage-theft cases who runs the website WorkingNowAndThen.com on local labor laws and regulations, said Hernández Infante’s case also seems to fit a pattern. 

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STORIES WE ARE FOLLOWING 

New York

“Promise NYC” to provide childcare assistance to low-income families with undocumented children: Set to launch in January 2023, New York City expects Promise NYC will support at least 600 children over the next six months. — Read more

NYC immigrant family separated under Trump seeks reparations: The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project is seeking damages from the U.S. government on behalf of Guatemalan immigrant Leticia Perent. — New York Daily News 

Bronx construction worker dies on the job at work site: The incident happened yesterday and authorities are investigating the dig site on 1861 Carter Avenue after the worker was struck by a digger around 11:30 a.m. yesterday. — amNY

Around the U.S. 

El Paso, long an immigrant haven, is tested by spike in arrivals: The crisis reflects how receiving so many newcomers at once is straining what’s sometimes called the Southwest’s Ellis Island. — The New York Times

Migrants tell of mass kidnappings in Mexico before crossing into the U.S.: Testimony from the nine migrants suggests there were multiple kidnappings across several days in the northern state of Durango. — Reuters

Immigrants and people seeking abortions at risk through new license plate-reading tech: There’s no Washington state law that restricts anyone from setting up automatic license plate readers, making it possible to catch those who come to the state for abortions. — Real Change

Washington D.C.

Window closes for congressional immigration deal: While advocates tried persuade lawmakers to protect Dreamers, lawmakers declined to debate the Sinema-Tillis deal that would put them on the path to citizenship. — Reuters, RollCall

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