Charges: Plant worker got immigrants fake IDs

Published 10:27 am Thursday, October 23, 2014

MINNEAPOLIS — An employee of a Minnesota slaughterhouse faces federal charges accusing her of arranging false identifications this year for at least a dozen people, including a 14-year-old Guatemalan girl who allegedly flew unaccompanied to the United States and paid $150 for a fake state-issued ID card.

Mireya Reyes, 31, of Fairfax was charged Tuesday in U.S. District Court with five felony counts of aiding and abetting the misuse of Social Security numbers while employed with Triple J Family Farms near Buffalo Lake in Renville County.

According to the charges, Reyes is accused of identity theft, unlawful employment and the “harboring of undocumented aliens” by directing future slaughterhouse workers on how to apply for state ID cards at the Department of Vehicle Services office in Redwood Falls.

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By mid-September, 10 Triple J Farms employees were arrested in connection with the case against Reyes, the Star Tribune reported. The charges did not implicate the company in any wrongdoing.

Reyes remains free on $25,000 unsecured bond. Her attorney, Tom Plunkett, told the newspaper Wednesday afternoon that he “just got the indictment” and had yet to determine whether his client wanted him to comment. Plunkett also would not say whether Reyes still worked for Triple J. Plant manager Jeff Eastman did not immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press on Wednesday.