Woman skips roofing bill by calling ICE when workers finish: report

American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick reacted in horror on Thursday to an allegation that a woman in Maryland hired a team of Guatemalan contractors to redo her roof at an expense of $10,000, waited until they were done — then called Immigration and Customs Enforcement on them to try to get out of paying the bill.

The X account that posted a video of the alleged incident stated, "Woman even provides the ladder used by agent to detain men — who she owes $10,000 for 3 day job. 'She called the damn law on us and now we're totally screwed!' men yell in Spanish. 'They surrounded us! — They surrounded us!' Agents even left behind the workers' van with doors wide open — filled with thousands of dollars worth of tools. The arrest was broadcast live for about 30 minutes by a co-worker — identified as Bryan Polanco."

Polanco's video included the woman who hired them, "Tidying up the house, and still with hatred in her heart."

According to Reichlin-Melnick, if the allegations in the post are correct, the homeowner could be facing serious felony charges.

"Very serious and disturbing allegation about a homeowner calling ICE on people working on her roof to avoid having to pay them," he wrote. "While the facts aren’t fully in yet, if the allegation is true it seems that this would be a felony under Maryland law."

Reichlin-Melnick posted the relevant statute of Maryland Criminal Law Code, which states, "A person may not obtain, attempt to obtain, or conspire to obtain money, property, labor, services, or anything of value from another person with the person's consent, if the consent is induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened ... notification of law enforcementofficials about another person's undocumented or illegal immigration status."

If the facts bear out as described, it would be just one of many recent criminal plots to weaponize immigration law. In January, a Wisconsin man on trial for robbery of a Mexican immigrant was convicted of identity theft for forging letters by that immigrant appearing to plot the assassination of President Donald Trump, hoping ICE would then deport him before he could testify at trial.