JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES THIRD GUILTY PLEA
IN NEW JERSEY SEX TRAFFICKING CASE

WASHINGTON, D.C.-A third illegal alien pleaded guilty today to charges of sex trafficking in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights R. Alexander Acosta and U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Christopher J. Christie announced today.

In January 2001, Domingo Gonzalez-Garcia smuggled his wife from Mexico into the United States with the purpose of forcing her into prostitution. Gonzalez-Garcia and his wife have been married for more than a decade and have three children.

“Human traffickers callously degrade and abuse their victims. Their crime is an affront to human dignity and a serious violation of federal law - whether the victim is a stranger or, as here, the defendant’s own wife. The Justice Department is committed to vigorously prosecuting the full range of human trafficking cases, ” said R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

Last week, Gonzalez-Garcia’s brother, Evodio Gonzalez-Garcia, and nephew, Oscar Romero-Gonzalez, pleaded guilty to similar charges. The pair admitted to smuggling Romero-Gonzalez’s wife into the United States, also for the purpose of forcing her into prostitution.

Gonzalez-Garcia will be sentenced on April 20th, 2004. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of three-year imprisonment and a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment and $250,000 fine.

The case is being prosecuted jointly by U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey and the Criminal Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

The Justice Department has increased prosecutions of human trafficking cases in recent years. Since 2001, the department has opened over 200 investigations into human trafficking and prosecuted more than 100 defendants. In 2000, federal prosecutors prosecuted 5 defendants.

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