TUCSON, Ariz. – This week, Henry Joe Kane, 52, of Tumacacori, Ariz., was sentenced by U.S. District Chief Judge Raner C. Collins to two years in prison. Kane had previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to harbor illegal aliens for profit, a felony. Kane’s prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.
In the summer and fall of 2015, agents arrested a series of people driving cars through the Border Patrol checkpoint on I-19 near Amado with undocumented aliens being smuggled within. Agents were able to trace the smuggled people back to the Kane residence in Tumacacori. On Dec. 3, 2015, agents executed a search warrant on the Kane residence and found Kane along with six undocumented aliens – one of them an unaccompanied minor – who were staying there temporarily before being smuggled further north.
The aliens were kept in what Judge Collins characterized as “deplorable conditions,” with rodent and pet droppings, along with evidence of cockroaches, accumulated throughout the trash-strewn residence. Kane was receiving payment from smugglers to keep people in the house.
The investigation was conducted by the Department of Homeland Security–Homeland Security Investigations. The prosecution was handled by Brian R. Decker, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Tucson.