Guatemalan Women Sentenced for Using Social Security Number of Deceased Person to Cicumvent the E-Verify System

MOBILE, AL — Richard W. Moore, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, announces that Magdalena Vasquez Garcia (age 44, of Guatemala) has been sentenced to time served and one year of supervised release after pleading guilty to using a Social Security number issued to another individual for purposes of circumventing the E-Verify System. E-Verify is a system that allows employers to confirm the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States. Garcia also faces potential immigration consequences following her sentencing.

During the course of an investigation into another matter, special agents with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor determined that certain individuals working at a nursery in Mobile County were circumventing the E-Verify System by using Social Security numbers that had been issued to other individuals.  One of the individuals doing so was Magdalena Vasquez Garcia, a Guatemalan national illegally present in the United States.   Specifically, Garcia was using a Social Security number assigned to a now-deceased woman who had lived in Texas.  During the course of this investigation, it was determined that this same Social Security number was being used by other individuals illegally working in Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee. 

This case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Bodnar.