Another ‘debunked’ story Trump was right about

Andy Ha, 28, of Belle Vernon, pleaded guilty to two counts before U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon. He was charged on Jan. 28, 2025.

This tiny Washington County borough, located on the banks of the Monongahela River, gained national attention ahead of last year’s elections for two unrelated but very important reasons: the proposed closing of the Pyrex glass plant that has employed generations of residents here, and the influx of Haitian immigrants to a town struggling with resources.

When then-candidate Donald Trump drew attention to the situation, the national press descended on the town immediately, pushing back on Trump’s assertion that there were illegal immigrants in town. The New York Times wrote that the migrants had “temporary authorization to live in the United States.”

It turns out, however, Trump wasn’t as wrong as the national press narrative implied. That became crystal clear Monday after federal authorities finished their months-long investigation of Ha’s temporary staffing agency called Prosperity Services Inc. The agency supplied immigrant workers to multiple companies in the region, including Fourth Street Foods, which makes prepared meals sold in national grocery store chains.

David Barbe, the owner of Fourth Street Foods, said Prosperity Services was one of six different staffing agencies he has used and that he had no knowledge if any of the workers were illegal.

“Anybody that is working now here at the plant who works for any of the agencies has to be E-verified to have the legal right to work in the country,” said Barbe in an interview with the Washington Examiner.

Barbe said they currently employ a total of 700 immigrants from different 30 countries.

In August 2024, federal investigators had already begun to build a case against Ha. Court records showed they had seized almost a million in cash from Prosperity Services. One of those seizures happened outside a building along state Route 88 where illegal immigrants received payments in cash.

In October, Paul Van Osdol, an investigative reporter for the local ABC affiliate, reported the building where the workers picked up their cash was called “Pay Now.”

According to Rivetti, Ha’s business paid for more than 25 workers who were not legally authorized to be in the United States to stay in a former hotel. And his business paid for vans to transport those workers to and from their work.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Ha provided Prosperity Services’s tax return preparer with spreadsheets listing only workers who were legally authorized to work in the United States. That information, in turn, was reflected on the company’s quarterly employment tax returns, representing less than 10% of the actual total number of workers employed by Prosperity Services. Ha then signed those returns, knowing them to be false and causing a tax loss of at least $3.1 million.

“The defendant broke the law by harboring and employing individuals not authorized to be in the United States,” said Rivetti. “In addition, defendant Ha cost the U.S. government millions of dollars through his failure to pay taxes related to his business. Our office and our law enforcement partners at all levels will continue to ensure that those who seek to profit from the employment of such workers, and who fail to pay taxes, face appropriate consequences under the law.”

“Business owners have a responsibility to file accurate quarterly employment tax returns and to timely remit withholding taxes for their employees to the Internal Revenue Service,” said Yury Kruty, special agent in charge of the IRS-Criminal Investigation of the Philadelphia Field Office. “The failure to do so is a serious offense.”

“This investigation highlights the commitment of HSI Pittsburgh to protecting our communities from those who seek to exploit undocumented workers for their personal gain,” said Edward V. Owens, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Philadelphia. “Andy Ha and his business sought to profit off of the immigrant community. I commend the dedicated prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania and our partners at the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation division and Pennsylvania State Police. Together, we will continue to work to ensure that such illegal activities are met with the full force of the law.”

Charleroi is a beautiful little borough in the heart of the iconic Mon Valley. One hundred years ago it was the home of over 11,500 people, a robust business district that was known for its glass production, specifically Corning Glass which makes Pyrex products.

Today, that population has sunk to 4,000 thanks almost exclusively to the decline in good manufacturing jobs since steel began declining in the Mon Valley over the past few decades.

A town built on immigrants, it was the influx of Belgian migrants that founded this town in the 1880s, and it is now an influx of Haitian immigrants in the past five years that has kept the business district from declining. People here tend to rarely have a problem with legal immigrants. But they are deeply concerned with illegal migration that often exploits the most vulnerable.

The other big news in this town is the uncertainty of what is going to happen to the iconic glass factory known for making Pyrex dishware. Its future has been uncertain for months, and losing Pyrex would be a deep economic blow, taking more than 300 jobs out of state to Ohio after more than a century of production in this town.

Since last fall, Anchor Hocking, the parent company that owns the plant has announced and then delayed the plant closure several times. This has destabilized both the workers and the psyche of the community that has identified with glassmaking for almost all of its existence.

The pain is hard to understand for those who have not identified with an industry and the camaraderie that has been developed through that identity. There are people who work at the plant whose entire families have worked there, often working shoulder-to-shoulder sons and daughters of someone their father or mother worked with.

As for Ha, Judge Bissoon has scheduled sentencing for July 22, 2025.

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The law provides for a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gain from the offense or both on the tax charge and up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gain from the offense, or both on the harboring charge.

The IRS-Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and Pennsylvania State Police conducted the investigation that led to the prosecution of Ha.