West Liberty Foods worker to be deported for document fraud

DAVENPORT – A Mexican national who had been working in West Liberty was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court to time served for one count of Fraud and Misuse of Documents.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said that Jose Manuel Rodriguez-Najera, 30, who has been in custody since April 25, will be released to authorities for deportation.

Rodriguez-Najera had been employed under a false name at West Liberty Foods after he presented another man's social security card and Iowa driver's license while filling out his I-9 employment forms, the Attorney's office said. And on February 24, he showed Homeland Security agents with the same driver's license and a Puerto Rican birth certificate with the same name.

After Rodriguez-Najera incorrectly answered several of the agents' questions about Puerto Rico, he admitted that he was born in Mexico and that the Puerto Rican birth certificated was fake, the Attorney's office said. He then presented a Mexican Consulate Identification Card that displayed his correct name.

The investigation of Rodriguez-Najera was prompted by a Homeland Security survey of West Liberty Foods employment forms.