Thread: 7 men who used false IDs plead guilty, be deported

7 men who used false IDs plead guilty, be deported

Sarah Fowler, The Clarion-Ledger
4:18 p.m. CDT September 11, 2015


(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)


Seven of the 10 men who were arrested and charged with being undocumented workers at a Mississippi dairy farm pleaded guilty in Hinds County Court on Friday morning.

The three remaining men will go to trial.

The men were arrested in June as part of a joint investigation with Department of Homeland Security and the Mississippi attorney general’s office at American DairyCo in Raymond.
Relatives of the three men who will go to trial crowded into the courtroom to support their husbands, brothers and fathers.

Some of the men are from Guatemala, and others are from Honduras.

The families of the seven men who pleaded guilty Friday already have left the United States and returned to their countries of origin.

Through an interpreter, Juan Jose Chacon, Joel Hernandez Rodas, Ramiro Santiago Monico, Porfirio Rodriguez Jimenez and Guillermo Garcia Cruz, who had previously entered a not-guilty plea, pleaded guilty to one count of fraudulent use of identity.

According to court testimony, the false IDs were obtained between December 2012 and March of this year.

As each man appeared before the judge for sentencing, a translator explained the proceedings. One man, Jimenez, responded to each of the judge’s questions with “Si, senor.”

After he had been sentenced, Jimenez told the judge, “Gracias, thank you.”

Two of the seven men have a ninth-grade education. The other five have a sixth-grade education.

Each man received a sentence of two years, which was suspended with credit for time served.

As a stipulation of the plea deal, DHS will deport each of the seven men within 48 hours.

Nathan Elmore, attorney for five of the seven men who pleaded guilty and for two of the men going to trial, said many immigrants in Mississippi readily find work in the agricultural field.

“There are jobs waiting for them,” Elmore said “There are employers who wish to hire them. ... I’m not an economist. I don’t know exactly what other persons are applying for those jobs, but a common-sense look at the situation would tell me that, because so many of my clients are obtaining these jobs, that they are available. If they’re available, that means other persons are not doing them.”

Elmore said he understands and shares the frustrations of people who wish immigrants were in the United States legally.

However, Elmore said he feels his clients did not willfully violate the law.

“These people that are coming here, it’s not a willful intent to violate the law or to do things in spite of the law. It’s in the face of a legal system that is not functioning,” he said.

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/n...rted/72092704/

6/1/15

http://www.alipac.us/f12/ms-dairy-wo...-cards-319960/