Hawkeye Reporter

A Guatemalan citizen, Cindy Fabiola Santos-Perez, has been sentenced to 109 days in federal prison for the unlawful use of a social security card. Santos-Perez, 35, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful use of an identification document.

According to her plea agreement, Santos-Perez admitted that on December 15, 2020, she used a fraudulent social security card to prove her authorization to work in the United States. She repeated this action on April 13, 2021. On May 17, 2022, she falsely represented a social security number as her own with the intent to deceive.

United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams handed down the sentence in Cedar Rapids. In addition to her prison term, Santos-Perez will serve a three-year term of supervised release after completing her sentence. There is no parole in the federal system.

The prosecution was part of Operation Take Back America (https://www.justice.gov/dag/media/1393746/dl?inline), a national initiative by the Department of Justice that aims to address illegal immigration and dismantle cartels and transnational criminal organizations by combining resources from programs such as the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

Assistant United States Attorney Devra T. Hake prosecuted the case. The investigation was conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations under the Department of Homeland Security, along with assistance from the Postville Police Department.