By Mike Donoghue
Vermont News First

BURLINGTON – Two illegal aliens from Mexico, who authorities say used counterfeit immigration documents to get hired at a Chittenden County business, have been ordered jailed on felony immigration charges by a judge in U.S. District Court in Burlington.

Artemio Cordova Mendez, 36, and Alejandro Monfil Carbello, 40, have both been previously removed for being unlawfully in the United States, but each man returned without permission, according to Homeland Security Investigations.

Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted a raid at Lamell Lumber on Jericho Road in Essex and took both men into custody on Saturday, federal court records show.

Cordova Mendez has been removed twice from the United States after being found illegally in the country, but he unlawfully slipped back across the border after each deportation, records show.  Now he has been found unlawfully for a third time in the USA, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine H. Flynn said in court.

Monfil Carbello, 40, was previously removed once from the United States, but illegally came back across the border, records show.

Federal court records show both had provided fake or counterfeit papers to a temporary employment agency, Agri-Placement Services (APS), which places immigrants on farms for work.  Both men were both eventually placed at Lamell Lumber in Essex to work at their sawmill facility on Vermont 15, also known as Jericho Road.


APS is based in Rochester, N.Y. and provides farm workers at 17 sites across New England, including 13 in Vermont, according to the company.  They provide services in 15 states with more than 700 workers at 114 work sites, the company says on its website.   

Vermont News First was told a third person also was taken into custody during the Essex raid, but there is no known public record identifying the person or any charge.

Federal Magistrate Judge Kevin J. Doyle ordered both jailed without bail on Monday afternoon.  He agreed both were serious risks to flee after hearing arguments in court Monday afternoon from Flynn.   Flynn said neither man had a legal status in the USA and cited their past legal problems for unlawful entry.

Assistant Public Defender Emily Kenyon said Cordova Mendez has been in Vermont for about five years, including three in Essex.

Doyle noted that Cordova Mendez has a wife and 3 children back in Mexico, along with 6 siblings.

Flynn noted Monfil Carbello apparently had been in Vermont for about a year.  She noted that in a 2016 arrest in New Mexico, Monfil Carbello said he was headed to the Burlington area.

Doyle noted Monfil Carbello had been in Essex for only about six months and has a brother in Vermont.   Most of his ties are in Mexico where a wife and 4 minor children and 6 siblings reside, Doyle said.

Doyle told both men in their separate hearings that they were entitled to a probable cause hearing about the charges.  He set the hearings for Aug. 18.

Both men used a court-appointed interpreter to help them understand the legal proceedings.

By coincidence or otherwise, the new ICE investigation into workers at Lamell Lumber appears to have started shortly after a February protest at the business by migrant workers and friends from Migrant Justice.  The migrant workers, who are provided free housing as part of their benefits, went on strike for higher wages.

ICE served Lamell Lumber a notice of inspection and a subpoena on March 6 ordering the third-generation company to produce various business and immigration records, a court affidavit notes.

When the records were produced, a HSI auditor determined Cordova Mendez had filed a fraudulent Alien Registration Number on Oct. 6, 2022 and that a copy of a second document was counterfeit that said he was eligible for employment, federal court records show.

The same thing happened with Monfil Carballoi, court records show.  He filed a false Immigration File Registration Number on Feb. 7, 2025, Homeland Security said. 

Each man “used a forged and counterfeit document to satisfy a requirement under the INA” (Immigration and Nationality Act).

Lamell Lumber was apparently unaware that some of the documents were fraudulent, officials said.  Company President Ron Lamell declined comment about the case on Tuesday.

U.S. Border Patrol Agents arrested Cordova on Aug. 10, 2010 near Lukeville, Arizona for unlawfully entering the country, court records show.  A federal judge found him guilty 6 days later and imposed a “time served” sentence.  Cordova was advised and acknowledged he was prohibited from re-entering the United States for at least 5 years.  He was removed the following day on a flight from Tucson, Arizona to Mexico City, records show.

Cordova was caught again unlawfully entering the United States again near Antelope Wells, N.M. on Feb. 20, 2011, just six months after his initial banishment.   He was criminally charged with reentry after deportation and also served another notice indicating that he could not return for 20 years.

A federal judge found him guilty April 5, 2011 and sentenced him to another “time served” sentence, which equated to just over 6 weeks in custody.  The following day he was officially removed on foot through the Pasco Del Norte Port of Entry, records show.

At no time Cordova received permission from the Department of Homeland Security to re-enter the United States, but somehow he was found unlawfully in Vermont on Saturday, a HSI task force officer said in court papers.