LOS ANGELES : Employer Guilty Under Immigrant Document Law
The former manager of a Los Angeles medical clinic became the first employer in Southern California convicted of knowingly accepting counterfeit documents in the hiring of illegal immigrants, the U.S. attorney’s office announced Monday.
A federal court jury convicted Maria Leticia Ruiz de Cruz of Ontario of two counts of knowingly accepting counterfeit immigration documents, according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Brent A. Whittlesey, who prosecuted the case. Whittlesey said that de Cruz, 41, faces a maximum prison term of five years and a $250,000 fine when she is sentenced Jan. 30.
In one instance, Whittlesey said, an immigrant told de Cruz that an Alien Registration Receipt and a Social Security card were false. The prosecutor said that in the other instance, de Cruz knew the immigrant was not authorized to work in the United States and knew that the Social Security card that the immigrant presented belonged to another person.
Neither de Cruz nor her attorney could be reached for comment Monday.
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