Officer guilty in immigrant transport
Thursday, March 11, 2010

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer has been convicted of helping three illegal aliens move to Metairie, where one of them got a job and enrolled her children in a Jefferson Parish public school.

Merlin Mireles, 39, of Weslaco, Texas, faces as long as 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine for transporting and harboring illegal aliens, although maximum sentences are rare in federal court. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier scheduled sentencing for July 1.

Mireles and his mother, Gloria Mireles, 66, of Metairie, were indicted 13 months ago. However, Gloria Mireles had health problems, and a grand jury in November issued a new set of charges naming her an unindicted co-conspirator but dropping her as a defendant, according to court records.

Merlin Mireles worked at the Port of Progreso near Brownsville, Texas, and struck up a romance with a Mexican woman who had entered the United States illegally, prosecutors said. In 2004, he moved the woman and her two children to Metairie to live in properties that he and his mother owned.

The immigrant woman testified during a two-day trial that she did domestic work for Gloria Mireles, who also found her a part-time job with a Metairie plumbing company and helped enroll her children in school. Prosecutors did not disclose where the woman lived, the schools the children attended or the name of the plumbing company.

A jury convicted Merlin Mireles of two felonies on Tuesday and acquitted him of a third, conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens. The case was investigated by the Immigrant and Customs Enforcement's Office of Professional Responsibility and prosecuted by assistant U.S. attorneys Michael McMahon and Robert Weir, the U.S. attorney's office said.

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