CEDAR RAPIDS – A woman who failed to disclose her husband’s income when applying for welfare benefits was sentenced today to two months in federal prison.
Cleotilde Puac-Gomez, age 46, a citizen of Guatemala illegally present in the United States and residing in Clarion, Iowa, received the prison term after a February 6, 2019, guilty plea to one count of theft of U.S. government funds.
In a plea agreement, Puac-Gomez, an illegal alien, admitted she failed to report her husband’s income when applying for, and receiving, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid benefits between June 2012 and November 2017. During that time period, her husband Melvin Rodriguez-Barrios, also an illegal alien, was working under an alias and used someone else’s social security number to obtain work. By failing to accurately report the family’s income, Puac-Gomez received $19,908.30 in overpayment of food stamps and other welfare benefits in funds belonging to the United States and distributed by the State of Iowa.
Rodriguez-Barrios, age 44, was sentenced on March 27, 2019, to six months’ imprisonment following a January 2, 2019, bench trial finding him guilty of three counts of unlawful use of an identification document and four counts of misuse of a social security number.
Puac-Gomez was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Puac-Gomez was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment. She was ordered to make $19,908.30 in restitution to the State of Iowa. She must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Puac-Gomez is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until she can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel C. Tvedt and investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, the United States Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, and the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals Investigation Division – Economic Fraud Control Bureau.
You can be sure that NO, other politician will take up the illegal alien problem like Trump has.
And now we are paying for his incarceration!!!
WAKE UP !!!
Vote Trump
Vote America
STOP ILLEGAL ENTRY INTO THIS COUNTRY!!
No one from any country that comes in the United States without permission should receive any kind of welfare.
A case like this is probably the tip of the iceberg. It would most likely scare us to know how many others are getting by doing the same thing here in north Iowa.
Probably a bunch of bullshit story.
So, you didn’t graduate Thursday night. Couldn’t master sentence structure and word comprehension. Sad!
How is it even possible to receive benefits while residing in the country illegally? I’m not talking about the fraud here, but the very fact that the gov’t are handing out benefits to illegals that were paid for and intended for Americans?
https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligibility/citizen/non-citizen-policy
Imagine how many free steaks they grilled over 5 years.
Thanks for posting that link. However, it clearly stipulates that SNAP is ONLY for US citizens and some specific categories of LEGAL resident aliens. I have no problem with that – legal residents followed our rules and came here with our permission, and if we decide they are mooching of our system it is our prerogative to send them home.
OTOH according to this link, illegal aliens are NOT eligible for SNAP, so why was she receiving them in the first place and why was she not prosecuted for that crime as well? My guess is that official policy is one thing, but the reality is that no attempt is made to distinguish legal from illegal aliens in SNAP administration. Yeah, that’s a lot of free steaks courtesy of Red White and Blue.