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Wednesday, September 27, 2006

A South Florida woman now must decide whether she and her six children should relinquish their U.S. citizenship to join her husband once he’s deported to Guatemala for smuggling Mexican laborers through Lee County.

Guatemalan immigrant Jorge Martin Yac Vasquez, 31, of Florida City, was pulled over Jan. 12 on Interstate 75 near mile marker 148 in Lee County. Eight Mexican and Guatemalan men -- all undocumented workers -- were found inside the van he was driving.

He was sentenced Wednesday to 27 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington, who cautioned him that he cannot return to the country to even visit his family without prior authorization by the federal government.

“You cannot come back into the United States. You need to understand that,” Covington said.

Yac Vasquez has served almost 10 months in jail awaiting trial and sentencing. He was convicted on March, despite one worker testifying he had not paid Yac Vasquez for the trip, and wasn’t being smuggled. Jurors took less than 25 minutes to decide he was guilty of transporting illegal aliens for private financial gain.

He could have been sentenced to a maximum of 10 years, but under the advisory federal sentencing guidelines, he qualified for between 24 and 30 months behind bars.

Find additional coverage in Thursday's edition of the Daily News.