Thread: IA: Cedar Falls restaurant owner given prison time

http://www.radioiowa.com/gestalt/go....B9F18B903E1D90

Cedar Falls restaurant owner given prison time for hiring illegals

Thursday, February 22, 2007, 10:17 AM
by Roger King, KOEL, Oelwein

A Cedar Falls restaurant owner accused of hiring illegal aliens to work at his business has been ordered to prison after once again failing to show up for his sentencing. Thirty-two-year-old Julio Zapala-Urbina had pleaded guilty in June of last year to harboring an illegal alien for profit. Zapala-Urbina was part owner of Julio's Restaurant and Cantina in Cedar Falls, and the owner of two other Julio's restaurants in Missouri.

Last April, immigration officials raided the Cedar Falls business and arrested 11 illegal aliens who were working in the restaurant, and did not have authorization to work in the U.S. A few days later, agents went back to the restaurant and found another illegal working there who had been brought up from Missouri. Zapala-Urbina was originally scheduled to be sentenced in January, but failed to appear. Authorities were tipped off that he had fled to his native Mexico on Christmas Eve.

A warrant was issued for Zapala-Urbina's arrest and the sentencing was reset for February 20th. Zapala-Urbina again failed to show up and U.S. District Court Judge Linda Reade opted to proceed with sentencing, giving Zapala-Urbina 21 months in prison and ordered him to forfeit over $34,000 in cash seized from the restaurant and its bank account.

This one has it all. Illegal aliens, resident-alien and naturalized citizen.

http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2007 ... 492bc9.txt

Thursday, February 22, 2007 11:50 AM CST
Julio's owner sentenced in absentia
By JEFF REINITZ, Courier Staff Writer

CEDAR RAPIDS --- The part-owner of a Cedar Falls restaurant who pleaded to immigration charges remains at large.

But that didn't stop the court from sentencing him to almost two years in prison.

Julio Zalapa-Urbina, 32, who had lived in St. Joseph, Mo., and had operated Julio's Restaurant and Cantina in Cedar Falls, failed to show up for a scheduled sentencing Tuesday.

He had missed a similar hearing Jan. 11, and authorities were told he fled to Mexico on Christmas Eve.

There currently is an outstanding warrant for his arrest.

Zalapa-Urbina had been a permanent resident alien and worked legally in the United States and also operated Julio's restaurants in Missouri.

On Tuesday, U.S District Court Judge Linda Reade sentenced him to 21 months in federal prison once caught.

She found that Zalapa-Urbina had voluntarily waived his right to be present for sentencing and enhanced the punishment because of his absence.

Zalapa-Urbina also will have to serve two years of supervised release following his prison time and was ordered to forfeit $34,000 in cash seized from the Cedar Falls establishment and the business's bank account.

The sentencing comes as a manager for the restaurant was charged and --- in short order --- pleaded and was sentenced in connection with the same raid that brought the charges against the owner.

Rigberto Lopez-Ayala, 23, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Arkansas, was charged Tuesday and pleaded to a single count of aiding and abetting a pattern of hiring illegal aliens Wednesday.

He was sentenced to two years' probation and a $1,000 fine.

Court records alleged he had made plans to become a part owner of the business and hired at least one undocumented worker and told the worker he would be paid in cash.

Zalapa-Urbina's partner in the restaurant, Juan Manuel Lopez-Angel, 31, an illegal alien from Mexico and former Cedar Falls resident, was sentenced to 15 months in prison in January.

He pleaded to one count of harboring an illegal alien for profit and one count of willfully failing to depart the United States following a deportation order.

Lopez-Angel is Lopez-Ayala's uncle, according to court records.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the Cedar Falls restaurant in April.

They found 11 illegal aliens working at the business without authorization to be employed in the United States. A few days later they arrested another illegal alien who was brought from the St. Joseph restaurant to fill in following the raid.