Contact: Steve Young
A Texas man who harbored an illegal alien was sentenced today to nine months in federal prison.
Roman Sanchez, age 33, from Mission, Texas, received the prison term after a Sept. 18, 2014, guilty plea to one count of harboring, encouraging, and inducing an alien to reside in the United States.
In a plea agreement, Sanchez admitted that in March and April 2014 he recruited a Mexican citizen to work and reside in the United States in violation of the law. Knowing that this person was not authorized to live or work in the United States, Sanchez employed him to build and tear down grain bins in Texas and Iowa.
Sanchez was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Sanchez was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment and fined $2,000. A special assessment of $100 was imposed, he was ordered to make $500 in restitution, and pay $2,000 in legal fees. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Sanchez was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the United States Marshal on Jan. 26, 2015.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel C. Tvedt and investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations; the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, the Winneshiek County Sheriff’s Office, the Bremer County Sheriff’s Office, and the Iowa Department of Transportation.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 14-CR-2038.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
