A Woburn father and son who own two restaurants have pleaded guilty to smuggling migrants into the United States from Brazil, officials announced Thursday.

Jesse James Moraes, 66, and Hugo Giovanni Moraes, 45, who own Taste of Brazil—Tudo Na Brasa and The Dog House Bar and Grill, recruited undocumented migrants from Brazil to come to the United States through Mexico without authorization, according to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office.

The defendants charged between $12,000 and $22,000 per person, authorities said.

Migrants were encouraged to make false asylum claims and given fraudulent contact information to provide to immigration authorities when they were caught, the statement said.

Once the migrants arrived in the United States, the father and son helped them obtain long-term housing, officials said, including apartments owned by relatives of Hugo Moraes.

“The defendants arranged for some of the migrants to work at Tudo Na Brasa/Taste of Brazil and The Dog House Bar and Grill and paid the migrants either in whole or in part in cash, unless and until the migrants obtain documents of identity, at which point it would have to be paid at least partially by check,” the statement says.

The defendants told the migrants to obtain false identification documents and directed them to a co-defendant, Marcos Chacon Gil, also known as “Marquito,” who helped them obtain their documents, the office said.

Some of the migrants paid some of their smuggling fees when they arrived in the United States through direct payments, withheld wages or through collections by relatives and other associates, authorities said.

The father and son both pleaded guilty to conspiring to encourage and induce an alien to come to, enter, and reside in the United States, knowing or recklessly disregarding the fact that such entry, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of the law and for commercial advantage or private financial gain, the release states.

Officials said Jesse Moraes pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder the proceeds of the migrant smuggling conspiracy.

Sentencing is scheduled for February 11.

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Lindsay Shachnow covers general mission news for Boston.comreporting on breaking news, crime and politics in New England.

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