Detroit Area Couple Employed Hundreds Of Unauthorized Workers At Their Lucrative Plumbing Company: Feds

PLYMOUTH, MI — A Plymouth couple is facing charges after employing more than 200 undocumented immigrants at their lucrative plumbing company, according to the Department of Justice.

Moises Orduna-Rios, 36, and Raquel Orduna-Rios, 30, were charged with conspiracy, transporting and harboring unauthorized aliens for commercial advantage or private financial gain, conspiracy to bring in, harbor, and transport unauthorized aliens and employment of at least 10 unauthorized aliens within a 12-month period.

Federal officials said the couple owns Orduna Plumbing Inc, which is based in Plymouth and has locations in New York, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio.

From January 2022 to August 2025, officials said the company made roughly $74 million while employing mostly undocumented workers. They said only six of the 253 people that worked for the company were authorized to work in the U.S.

The couple hired the workers, took their passports and housed them in overcrowded houses and hotel rooms, officials said.

Investigators uncovered messages Moises Orduna-Rios sent to the workers to help them avoid getting arrested. The messages included discussions about payroll, proper care of company vehicles, proper use of company credit cards, concerns about being undocumented, switching housing locations to be less visible to law enforcement and precautions that should be taken to avoid being apprehended.

"Gentlemen, with all the controversy that is going on, it's better to get ready, drive the speed limit, limit yourselves going to the store, only do minimal running of errands, and do not have any gatherings such as barbeques," Moises Orduna-Rios wrote in one group text message to workers on Feb. 1.

In summer 2025, Border Patrol executed a search warrant at a Rochester, New York where nine workers were staying in cramped conditions, officials said.

Investigators found that the company paid the workers through multiple bank accounts that were controlled were controlled by the company.

Over the course of the investigation, officials said 23 people who worked for Orduna were arrested in New York and North Carolina.