Supreme Court Declines to Review Kentucky Restaurateurs’ Convictions for Harboring Unauthorized Immigrants
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a Kentucky federal jury’s verdict convicting two restaurateurs on four counts of harboring unauthorized immigrants, rejecting the business owners’ arguments that they were not intentionally hiding the migrants from the government.
According to an order list released Monday, the justices declined to review a Sixth Circuit panel’s split ruling in November. Restaurateurs Yun Zheng and Yan Qiu Wu were found guilty in January 2022 after they hired four unauthorized Hispanic men to work at their restaurant, Tokyo Dragon Buffet Inc. Court documents reveal that the two paid the men only in cash and had them live in the duo’s basement to avoid deportation.
In their February petition for a writ of certiorari, Zheng and Qiu Wu contended that the Sixth Circuit’s decision in their case had exacerbated existing confusion for prosecutors regarding whether intent to harbor unauthorized immigrants must be proven. The restaurateurs argued that the split panel did not properly address this question.
