Poultry plant employee convicted of recruiting, harboring illegal immigrant
By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com

A federal jury has convicted a Monett woman who was involved in hiring employees at a poultry-processing plant in Butterfield of inducing an illegal immigrant to enter the United States and harboring an illegal immigrant.

Dora Ruiz, 33, was found guilty Tuesday at the end of a two-day trial in U.S. District Court in Springfield on two counts contained in a federal indictment handed up Oct. 16. Ruiz faces the possibility of up to 10 years in prison for the convictions.

It was the first trial conviction obtained by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Missouri related to a probe conducted in May 2007 at George’s Processing Inc. in Barry County. Another former George’s Processing employee, Sinthia Valdez-Ramirez, 23, pleaded guilty earlier this month to aiding and abetting others in committing aggravated identity theft.

Both women formerly worked in the plant’s human-resources department and were involved in hiring employees.

“These convictions mark an important development in our continued commitment to pursuing employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens,â€