A contractor who hired illegal immigrants to dig ditches for a Verizon project was sentenced Friday to 14 months in prison.

Robert Buttery Sr., 53, of Fauquier County, pleaded guilty to hiring, housing and transporting the undocumented workers for his company, B&B Cable. He was caught after a state trooper stopped a van on Interstate 264 last summer and discovered 14 of his workers in the back.

The lawyer, George Yates of Virginia Beach, pleaded with the judge to take a political stand.

“Mr. Buttery is a small potato,” Yates said. “There are millions of Americans committing crimes by hiring illegal aliens and we turn the other way.”

“I don’t quite understand where you’re coming from,” Friedman said.

“I’m just asking the court to put this in context,” Yates said, noting there are an estimated 20 million illegal immigrants working in the country.

“Depending on who gets elected, it may very well be legal to hire these people,” Yates continued. “John McCain doesn’t want to send them back. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama don’t want to send them back.”

“My job is to follow the law,” Friedman interrupted, adding that he cannot be concerned about political matters.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Metcalfe argued that Buttery could have faced substantial more time had the government decided to indict him on money laundering and tax evasion charges.

Metcalfe said the Buttery operation grossed $1.8 million in about four years of employing illegal immigrants and in that time the company paid no Social Security or Medicare taxes.

The government is seeking $250,000 in restitution, but Yates informed the court that Buttery is broke.

The Buttery company hired dozens of illegal immigrants to dig ditches for Verizon’s fiber-optic lines. Workers were paid $100 per day for a 12-hour shift minus $60 a week for housing and utilities, according to court records. Some said they were put up in a house off Oceana Boulevard in Virginia Beach.

B&B was hired by Ivy H. Smith Inc., a Greensboro, N.C.-based company that was a subcontractor for Fiber Technology Construction Inc., of Canton, Ga., that held a contract with Verizon Communications. Neither company has been accused of any wrongdoing.

Justice is served.