Minnesota Resident Sentenced for Transporting Illegal Aliens

A southern Minnesota man was sentenced in federal court Thursday, January 31, 2013, for transporting illegal aliens.

The sentence resulted from an investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), in cooperation with the St. Peter Police Department, the Nicollet County Sheriff's Office, the LeSueur County Sheriff's Office and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

John Arrazolo, 44 of St. Peter, Minn., was sentenced to three years probation, six months home confinement, and a $2,000 fine on one count of transporting illegal aliens. Arrazolo was indicted on April 16 and pleaded guilty Aug. 16.

"Those who transport or harbor illegal aliens require secrecy and often coercion to succeed," said Special Agent in Charge Michael Feinberg, of HSI St. Paul. "HSI works with our state and local law enforcement partners to bring justice to anyone who exploits others for illegal profit."

In his plea agreement, Arrazolo admitted that between October 2006 and October 2011, he transported two illegal aliens from Texas to Minnesota to work in his business.

Arrazolo's company, Poultry Service Management, provided manual labor to large corporate chicken farms in Minnesota and the surrounding area. The workers loaded chickens for shipping, vaccinated chickens, trimmed chicken beaks and provided other general labor as requested by the poultry producers.

Arrazolo admitted that one of the individuals he transported was a citizen of Mexico, and that he knew the individual was not a U.S. citizen when he transported him from Texas to Minnesota.