85 Sentenced Following Arrests At Iowa Meatpacking Facility

"This is the greatest number of defendants ever to plead guilty and be sentenced in one day in the Northern District of Iowa," said Dummermuth. "Because of a special early disposition program approved by the Department of Justice, we have been able to handle this large volume of cases in a relatively short period of time."

Seventy-seven defendants were sentenced to prison after they pleaded guilty to using false identification documents to obtain employment and admitted to fraudulently using the means of identification of an actual person. The other eight were sentenced to probation after they pleaded guilty to using a false identification document to obtain employment but the identification did not belong to an actual person. All 85 admitted they were inthe United States illegally. Those sentenced to prison received sentences of five months imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release and face removal fromthe United States following their prison sentence. The other eight were sentenced to five years probation and face removal fromthe United States.

Additional hearings are scheduled through Thursday. See http://www.iand.uscourts.gov/cvjschdule.nsf/by+date.

Those sentenced to terms of imprisonment are being held in the U.S. Marshal's custody. Those sentenced to probation will be turned over to ICE officials for removal proceedings.

The investigation was led by ICE with assistance of other federal, state and local agencies including the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; Iowa Department of Public Safety; Iowa Department of Transportation; FBI; Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigations; and U.S. Department of Labor.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice