Family tied to company with history of hiring unlawful 'aliens' among Kelly Loeffler donors
Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who has maintained a strong anti-illegal immigration stance during her short tenure in office, has raised tens of thousands of dollars for her Georgia Senate runoff campaign from donors linked to a family owned company that was forced to pay out more than $95 million in fines for unlawful immigration practices and alleged hiring discrimination, disclosure records show.
Between late November and early December, Loeffler's campaign received more than $28,000 in contributions from at least 11 members of the Asplundh family, according to new campaign finance reports filed to the Federal Election Commission. The Asplundh family owns and operates the large, privately held Asplundh Tree Expert Company, which has done work for the U.S. Department of Energy.
In 2017, the Pennsylvania-based tree-trimming and vegetation management company had to pay the largest civil settlement ever levied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a yearslong investigation resulted in the company pleading guilty to "unlawfully employing aliens." Additionally, in January 2019, Asplundh agreed to pay $55,000 in back wages to settle hiring discrimination allegations stemming from one of its facilities in Georgia.
ABC News sent a detailed email to two staffers on Loeffler's campaign that outlined the company's past settlement over its unlawful immigration practices and back pay for alleged discrimination. In addition to asking for a general comment on the donations and the company's past, ABC News also asked if the campaign knew that members of the Asplundh family had donated and intentionally excluded their occupations and employers; if the campaign -- given the senator's stance on immigration and the company's infraction in Georgia -- wanted their support and their donations; and if the campaign did not want their support or donation, if they would refund them.
In response, Loeffler's deputy campaign manager, Stephen Lawson, replied, "[W]e're marking your email as spam. Please don't ever email us again."In a follow-up email a minute later, Loeffler's press secretary, Caitlin O'Dea, wrote, "And Merry Christmas!"
The Asplundh family did not respond to requests for comment, either.
-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan and Soo Rin Kim