A Guatemalan man involved in large-scale distribution of false ID documents in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area was sentenced this week to six months time served and ordered deported back to Guatemala.

Good news or bad news?

Here is the case, as reported in mLive dot com:

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A man who provided fraudulent documents for sale in West Michigan expects to be deported and leave behind his family.

Benjamin Morales-Sales was sentenced Monday, May 13, in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids to six months in prison, with credit for six months already served, after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce and traffic in fraudulent identification documents.

Judge Janet Neff ordered Morales-Sales be remanded to the custody of U.S. marshals.

Here is the government side:

A federal prosecutor said the defendant, with alleged ties to a Chicago organization, caused significant problems in West Michigan.

Those involved in the conspiracy and others "flooded the Grand Rapids area with fraudulent identification documents," Assistant U.S. Attorney Clay West wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

And here is the defense side:

Morales-Sales, 33, of Grand Rapids, was described as a hard-working family man who cared for his girlfriend and her children, along with a child they had together.  A citizen of Guatemala, he entered the U.S. in 2001 — after an earlier unsuccessful try — and moved to Michigan four years later[.] ...

A school social worker said that his family is devastated to lose him.  She works with two of the girls who consider Morales-Salles their father.  She diagnosed the girls with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Here is my take: he's part of a criminal gang and in America illegally.  His girlfriend and children are free to join him in Guatemala.