Thread: Iowa meat plant supervisor gets 2 years for harboring ill.

Former Iowa meat plant supervisor sentenced to nearly 2 years for harboring illegal immigrants

Last update: March 4, 2009 - 5:18 PM

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - A supervisor arrested after a massive immigration raid at a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa has been sentenced to nearly two years in federal prison for harboring illegal immigrants.

Martin De La Rosa-Loera was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids to 23 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release.

The 43-year-old Postville man pleaded guilty last year to aiding and abetting the harboring of undocumented immigrants under an agreement with prosecutors.

He was arrested in July following an immigration raid that netted 389 people at the Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant in Postville.

Other company managers also face federal charges.


http://www.startribune.com/nation/40748202.html

Former Agriprocessor supervisor sentenced to 23 months in jail

By GRANT SCHULTE • gschulte@dmreg.com • March 4, 2009


A former supervisor at Postville’s kosher meat plant will serve nearly two years in federal prison for his efforts to help and harbor illegal immigrants, prosecutors said.

Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43, was among the first mid-level employees arrested after the May 2008 raid at Agriprocessors, Inc. The Mexican national, who came to the U.S. illegally but later became a lawful resident, pleaded guilty last year to one count of aiding and abetting the harboring of undocumented aliens.

De La Rosa-Loera oversaw roughly 70 workers in the plant’s poultry department, prosecutors said in a statement. In early May 2007, he told illegal workers that they would need to change their Social Security numbers and names to continue working at the plant.

The workers also needed to “start overâ€