Benton County farmer hopes for plea deal in federal immigration suit

By Lynda Waddington | 01.07.11 | 12:57 pm

A northeastern Iowa dairy farmer and beef producer charged by federal officials with harboring illegal immigrants for profit seems poised to strike a deal contingent on a guilty plea.

Kenneth C. Birker is listed as the president of Birker Inc. in state business filings, and is scheduled to appear Monday in federal court. According to a letter filed with the court by prosecutors, Birker is ready to enter a guilty plea to the charge that he engaged in a pattern or practice of continuing to employ undocumented aliens in violation of U.S. law.

The charge is a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in prison or a term of probation of not more than five years, a fine of $3,000 for each unauthorized worker, and a mandatory special assessment of $10. The government, according to the letter filed with the court, has agreed not to resist requests by Birker or his attorney, Alfred Willett, for a sentence of probation, and is not intent on seeking imprisonment in the case.

Prosecutors believe that Birker employed two workers in November 2001 without providing employee eligibility forms required by the government. Court documents name those two workers as Alejandra Sarabia-Lule and Jose Alfredo Tinajero-Uribe, a husband and wife from Mexico, and note that the couple and their family were believed to be housed in company-owned accommodations. Three years later, in May 2004, prosecutors allege that Birker hired Tinajero-Uribe’s sister, Carmen Gonzalez, and once again failed to file required government work-related documents.

Court documents indicate that the situation was unearthed when the company unsuccessfully attempted to obtain health insurance for the workers in 2003, and when the workers attempted to legalize their status in the U.S. during 2004. All three workers were taken into custody at the farm by federal agents in 2006. The case against Birker and the farm has been ongoing since that time.

During court hearings in 2007, Tinajero-Uribe and Sababia-Lule relinquished their attorney-client privilege and testified in material witness depositions that they contacted Miryam Antunez de Mayolo, a Cedar Falls immigration attorney, roughly two years before their arrest in order to take steps to legalize their status. They indicated they met with the attorney at her office, and 15 days later the two accompanied by Ken Birker and his sister, Bonnie Birker, met with the attorney at the farm.

While being deposed, Tinajero-Uribe testified that the attorney discussed “the form that she was going to send him so he can sign. Sarabia-Lule testified that the attorney and Birker discussed what would need to be done “so that can fix the paper legal in this country.â€