The federal court imposed yesterday a sentence of eight months of home confinement and two years of supervised release on a woman who pleaded guilty of conspiring with a job-placement agency owner and another person to file petitions for CNMI-only Transitional Worker permits for some alien workers that falsely named the company as the workers\u2019 employer. <\/p>\n
U.S. District Court for the NMI designated judge David O. Carter said he is going to recommend that Rosabella P. Cruz be deported immediately to the Philippines.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think you should remain in the CNMI,\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n
The judge told the U.S. government that if Immigration wants to deport Cruz they should do it right away and not wait for eight months.<\/p>\n
Carter noted that Cruz\u2019s involvement in the conspiracy was short, she did not get anything out of this scam, and that she accepted responsibility and is remorseful.<\/p>\n
Carter said he was struck with the information that Cruz was only earning $300 monthly in the past as a houseworker and later got a better salary of $400 monthly as an employee.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, coming from a different environment, that\u2019s very tragic,\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n
The judge also noted that Cruz\u2019s life has a lot of tragedies, including not knowing her biological parents after she was left in a shoebox when she was just a baby.<\/p>\n
Carter said it is difficult for him to sentence Cruz to 21 months in prison\u2014as the U.S. government had recommended\u2014when the mastermind, Mariano K. Pangelinan, got only a six-month prison term.<\/p>\n
Assistant U.S. attorney Ross Naughton recommended a 21-month prison term. Attorney Michael Evangelista, counsel for Cruz, recommended a sentence of probation or home confinement. <\/p>\n
Evangelista said that Cruz cooperated with the U.S. government from the start and he was surprised when she was later arrested. He said his client has had a very rough life since she was a child. <\/p>\n
He said Cruz has been supporting her daughter and her mentally ill brother and that her participation in the crime was very minor or limited.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer entire life is a tragic,\u201d he said, adding that the defendant\u2019s mistake was she returned to work for Pangelinan. \u201cShe has suffered more than enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Evangelista said Pangelinan, the mastermind who profited from the scam, got only six months in prison.<\/p>\n
Cruz cried in court as she apologized for what she did. She said she accepted Pangelinan\u2019s offer to work at his company because she needed a job for her family. Cruz begged the judge to give her a chance.<\/p>\n
Assistant U.S. Attorney Naughton said that Pangelinan got only a six-month sentence because of his terrible health condition, a factor that is not present in Cruz\u2019s case.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just what happens when you commit a crime,\u201d Naughton said.<\/p>\n
Last March, Cruz pleaded guilty to a count of the indictment charging her with conspiracy to commit visa fraud and to defraud the United States. The offense carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release.<\/p>\n
According to the plea agreement that Cruz entered with the U.S. government, she took a job at ARCH International Co. Ltd. in July 2011 and held this job until January 2012.<\/p>\n
While working for ARCH, Cruz prepared and filed with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, on behalf of aliens, I-129 CW visa petitions that falsely and fraudulently named ARCH as each alien\u2019s \u201cemployer\u201d when she and Pangelinan knew that the company did not employ these aliens.<\/p>\n
The indictment charged Pangelinan, Cruz, and Helen N. Aparente with one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud and to defraud the U.S. <\/p>\n
In addition, Pangelinan was charged with 17 counts of visa fraud, Cruz with 13 counts of visa fraud and one count of false statement, and Aparente with four counts of visa fraud.<\/p>\n
Pangelinan was the primary corporate officer of ARCH International Co. Ltd., which held itself out as a job-placement agency that could help aliens in need of CW-1 permits find employment and obtain CW-1 permits. <\/p>\n
Cruz and Aparente were employees of ARCH. Aparente has fled to the Philippines. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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