Couple made $16M bringing workers illegally in US to Alabama chicken plant, feds say
A company contracted to fill shifts for line workers at a chicken processing plant in Alabama supplied the plant with people who weren’t authorized to work in the U.S., according to federal prosecutors.
The plant reportedly had no idea.
But prosecutors said the couple running the company that supplied workers did.
A federal jury found Deivin Escalante, 31, and Crystal Escalante, 38, guilty on Monday of conspiring to transport individuals in the U.S. illegally and money laundering after a five-day trial in the Northern District of Alabama.
Prosecutors said the duo knew many of the workers used fake identities, or would help them change their names to ensure they’d be approved to work. They also drove the workers to and from the plant in passenger vans.
The couple reportedly received $16 million over three years as part of the scheme, which they’re accused of using to buy properties and “several high-end vehicles.”
A defense attorney representing Deivin Escalante declined to comment until after his client was sentenced, and an attorney for Crystal Escalante did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Thursday.
The pair is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 24 and face up to 30 years in prison on both charges, according to court documents and prosecutors.
The case dates to July 2018, when an employee at Mar-Jac Poultry in Jasper, Alabama, reportedly tipped off Homeland Security Investigations about a worker using the same name and Social Security number as someone working at a Mar-Jac plant in Mississippi, WBMA reported.
Jasper is about 40 miles northwest of Birmingham.
Marc-Jac is a poultry production company headquartered in Georgia with growers, hatcheries, feed mills and processing plants in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. According to its website, the company produces more than two million birds a week.
Crystal Escalante ran Grand Family Enterprises LLC, a staffing company that contracted with Mar-Jac in Alabama to provide workers at its processing plant, court documents state.
A federal agent who wrote an affidivait, which accompanied criminal complaints against Crystal Escalante and her husband, said the company was expected to bring in workers “legally authorized to work in the United States.” Crystal Escalante was also expected to use e-Verify to confirm their eligibility.
E-Verify is a website run by the Department of Homeland Security that enables employers to check whether their employees are authorized to work in the country.
Crystal and Deivin Escalante operated the business from their home in Haleyville, Alabama, about 37 miles from the plant in Jasper. Several passenger vans were also registered at the address, the agent said.
Homeland Security agents had encounters with the couple multiple times during the course of their investigation. According to the affidavit, Crystal Escalante approached officers after they pulled over one of her vans with individuals believed to be in the country illegally, and Deivin Escalante was in one of the white vans when it was pulled over on another date.
Agents also watched white vans registered to Crystal Escalante ferry dozens of workers between their homes and the processing plant in Jasper, the agent said.
Eventually, Homeland Security sent in a confidential source to ask the Escalante’s for a job.
During that encounter, the agent said, the source told both Crystal and Deivin Escalante that he was “illegal” and didn’t have the proper documents to work. They reportedly told him that wouldn’t be an issue.
The Escalante’s were charged by criminal complaint in October 2020 and arrested shortly thereafter, court documents show. Both were released on bond.
Their case went to trial on Oct. 4 and a verdict was reached Monday. The pair will have the chance to appeal the verdict after they are sentenced.
This story was originally published October 14, 2021 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Couple made $16M bringing workers illegally in US to Alabama chicken plant, feds say."
