QSI supervisor pleads guilty in illegal alien case
<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">The former supervisor of the Quality Service Integrity Inc. operation in Beardstown, arrested in April as part of a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement sweep, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to harboring illegal aliens and to aiding and abetting aggravated identity fraud.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Gerardo Dominguez-Chacon, 35, will be sentenced Nov. 19 by U.S. District Judge Jeanne Scott.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Dominguez-Chacon and Maria del Pillar Marroquin, 40, also a manager, were accused of knowingly harboring illegal aliens and allowing them to use false names to work for QSI, a company contracted to clean the Cargill Meat Solutions pork-processing plant in Beardstown.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Marroquin, charged only with harboring illegal aliens, is scheduled for trial Sept. 11. However, she is involved in plea negotiations with the government, according to court documents.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Dominguez-Chacon admitted that from about December 2006 to April 3, he knowingly hired aliens without proper work authorization. He also instructed employees who were working for QSI without proper work documents to obtain new identities and then employed them under their assumed identities.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">He admitted that on separate occasions, he provided four QSI employees with the identification and corresponding Social Security number of another person.</font>
<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Police and immigration agents raided the QSI operation inside the Cargill plant about 1 a.m. on April 4. A total of 62 managers and employees of the cleaning company were arrested then and five more later. </font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Forty-nine of those were arrested on administrative charges of being illegal aliens. Eighteen faced criminal charges.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">The other 16 have pleaded guilty to fraud and misuse of employment documents, and all but one have been sentenced.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Luis Raul Guerrero-Tarango, 37, was sentenced to five months in prison, and Saul Sanchez-Gomez, 38 was sentenced to four months.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">These 13 were sentenced to three months: Ricardo Hernandez-Zamora, 29; Wilder Fernando Cruz-Hidalgo, 38; Edgar Cruz-Hidalgo, 35; Jose Villanueva-Gomez, 58; Manuelle Moreno-Mejia, 18; Carmela Moreno-Mejia, 22; Evelia Martinez-Mata, 40; Cynthia Cordero-Lujan, 36; Alejandra Villanueva-Perez, 25; Jose Israel Orona de Anda, 42; Jesus Martin Cruz-Hidalgo, 37; Alvaro Juarez-Colin, 21; and Jorge Enrique Trujillo-Valdez, 34.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">One defendant, Gaudencio Flores-Mondragon, 37, is scheduled to be sentenced next month.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Upon completion of their prison sentences, they all will be deported.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Chris Dettro can be reached at (217) 788-1510 or chris.dettro@sj-r.com.</font>