Daily Herald | Posted: Thursday, November 13, 2008 11:00 pm
The human resources manager of a Lindon plant raided by immigration officials was sentenced Thursday to probation for helping undocumented workers get jobs at the company.
Alejandro "Alex" Urrutia-Garcia, 38, of Provo, pleaded guilty in April in U.S. District Court to two counts of encouraging or inducing illegal immigrants to reside in the United States unlawfully. Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah, said the sentencing guidelines for Urrutia-Garcia's crimes were for zero to six months in prison. However, he was sentenced by a judge to 36 months of probation.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 37 Latin-American immigrants who were in the country illegally during a February raid at Universal Industrial Sales Inc., where Urrutia-Garcia was human resources manager. The illegal immigrants made up more than half of Universal's workforce.
Urrutia-Garcia helped two workers get jobs at the plant without legal documentation. According to court records, he told one worker several places to get fraudulent documents. Another worker presented identification that did not match, and Urrutia-Garcia told him to come back the next day with matching documents.
Urrutia-Garcia pleaded guilty in April as part of a plea agreement, in which federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a reduced sentence because of his acceptance of responsibility for his crimes.
Urrutia-Garcia is a naturalized U.S. citizen.