Cash, cars, jewelry: Some corruption cases involving immigration officers

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In the past 12 months, dozens of U.S. immigration employees have been accused of corruption-related charges. Some cases, drawn from a review of court records and government announcements, and listed by agency:

U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION

• David Duque Jr., a Border Patrol agent since the mid-1990s, faces up to 15 years in prison at his November sentencing after pleading guilty to bribery and the unlawful transfer of documents. While being recorded by investigators, Duque sold some 70 identification documents to a source cooperating with law officers — including passports, birth certificates, green cards and Social Security cards. He also took a $5,000 bribe to allow cocaine through a highway checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas.

• Fernando Arango, a Customs officer in Nogales, Ariz., is set for trial in November on bribery and drug charges. Prosecutors allege Arango took $50,000 to allow a recreational vehicle packed with 440 pounds of cocaine through a border crossing last year. According to court documents, Arango instructed an accomplice to buy an RV and provided details about how to construct a hidden compartment to stow the drugs. He instructed the accomplice to have an elderly couple drive across the border, saying he "controlled" the crossing and that "for $3,000 per kilogram, he would assure safe passage of the cocaine," a criminal complaint states.

• Lizandro Martinez, a Customs officer for 14 years, faces up to life in prison at his scheduled October sentencing for allowing drugs through his inspection lane at the Progreso International Bridge in Texas. Martinez pleaded guilty to drug trafficking conspiracy and money laundering, admitting that starting in 2002 he allowed vehicles loaded with marijuana into the United States. Temporarily disabling the license plate reader at his lane so there would be no record, Martinez allowed in more than 13,000 pounds of drugs, sometimes in pickups "filled to the top," according to court documents and testimony. He got $10,000 per truck. The drug payments allowed him to make some $750,000 in cash purchases in 2003-2004, investigators said. Despite several suspensions — at least 15 misconduct complaints were filed against him dating back to 1992 — Martinez remained on the payroll until his arrest in 2004.

• Michael Carlos Gonzalez, an Arizona Border Patrol agent, is scheduled for trial in October on charges of possession with intent to distribute marijuana after allegedly stealing a 23-pound bundle of marijuana following a drug stop. According to court records, an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer stopped a pickup with bundles of drugs concealed in the bed. The driver fled, abandoning the truck, and the DPS officer gave chase. Gonzalez then arrived on scene. Video from the DPS officer's car shows Gonzalez, in Border Patrol uniform, walking to the tailgate, removing a bundle of marijuana, rearranging other bales to fill space left by the missing bundle, putting the drugs in his trunk and driving away, court records allege.

• Mario Alvarez and Samuel McClaren, California Border Patrol supervisory agents, are scheduled for sentencing Sept. 29 and face up to 18 years in prison on bribery and tax charges. They admitted taking $186,240 in bribes from a human smuggling organization to release or facilitate the release of immigrants from custody. Based in El Centro, Calif., they at one point smuggled two illegal immigrants across the border themselves in a government vehicle and released them for cash, according to court documents. In some cases, the agents altered the migrants' immigration status so they wouldn't be deported.

• Oscar Antonio Ortiz, a Border Patrol agent in El Cajon, Calif., was sentenced in July to five years in prison for conspiring to bring at least 100 illegal immigrants into the United States. Ortiz admitted that he and fellow agent Eric Balderas took money to transport illegal migrants north from the international boundary, sometimes in their Border Patrol vehicles. "They would have an arrangement with the smuggling organization: Meet us at 'x' point at 'x' time. Aliens would run through the fence into the Border Patrol truck. The truck would be driven north," said federal prosecutor Alana Wong. Balderas faces up to five years at his October sentencing. In an odd twist, the investigation revealed that Ortiz was himself an illegal immigrant. Ortiz applied for the Border Patrol with a fake birth certificate listing Chicago as his birthplace, though it was really Tijuana, Mexico.

• Mike Gilliland, a Customs employee since 1990, was indicted in June on charges of taking bribes to allow illegal immigrants through his inspection lane at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in California. Gilliland is accused of conspiring with two female smugglers to permit passage of caravans of cars, each sometimes packed with 10 or more migrants. According to court documents, wiretaps captured Gilliland making arrangements with the smugglers about what time to cross and which lane to use, using coded language. The smugglers allegedly used their deal with the inspector to promise clients "guaranteed" entry. One arrested driver told agents the smugglers who hired her had "a business arrangement" with an inspector who "has a beard, and is probably 45 years or older," an affidavit said. Gilliland is 44 years old with a beard, it added. A trial date is pending.

• Richard Elizalda, a Customs officer since 1996, was charged in June with accepting cash bribes and a 2000 Lexus for allowing carloads of illegal immigrants through his lane at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego. The investigation began in 2004 after a confidential source informed authorities about a corrupt officer there named "Richard." The following year, agents intercepted phone calls between Elizalda and a female smuggler in which they discussed Elizalda's work schedule and, on one occasion, the arrest of one of their drivers — saying how he'd almost made it and what bad luck he'd had, according to court documents. A trial date is pending.

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• Fabian Solis, a Customs officer in Texas, was sentenced in February to three years in prison for conspiring to smuggle undocumented migrants for money. Solis permitted smugglers to transport immigrants from staging points in Mexico through his inspection lanes at the Falcon Heights, Roma and Rio Grande international ports of entry between March 2003 and December 2004. Solis charged $300 a head, and allowed in at least 219, according to court documents. Solis was captured on video accepting bribe money.

• Juan Alfredo Alvarez, a senior Border Patrol agent stationed in Hebbronville, Texas, was sentenced in February to 20 years in prison on bribery and drug conspiracy charges. He and his brother, Jose Guadalupe Alvarez, received some $1.5 million in bribe money from drug traffickers for guaranteeing the safe passage of more than 66,000 pounds of marijuana through Border Patrol checkpoints, prosecutors said. Jose Alvarez, who acted as an intermediary for the smugglers, was sentenced to 17 years.

• Jorge Reyeros, a supervisory Customs inspector who worked out of Port Elizabeth, N.J., and Newark Liberty International Airport, was sentenced in January to 24 years in prison for conspiring with his brother and Colombian drug traffickers to import cocaine. Trial testimony revealed that 1,100 pounds of cocaine was to be shipped from Ecuador, concealed inside plastic bananas. Reyeros' brother, Juan, was also convicted for acting as a middleman. Another co-defendant, convicted smuggler Hernan "Nacho" Uribe of Medellin, Colombia, testified that Jorge Reyeros' role was to "let the drugs go by."

• Four Border Patrol agents who worked together at the Sierra Blanca, Texas, checkpoint were sentenced to prison last fall in a scheme to allow drugs and immigrants into the country. Agent Aldo Manuel Erives worked with his brother to smuggle cocaine and 750 illegal migrants through the checkpoint. Erives enlisted fellow agents and coordinated safe passage by calling his cohorts to tell them what vehicles to wave through at what time. One co-defendant, agent Jesus Delgado, told investigators he thought Erives was joking when he first approached Delgado about allowing vehicles to pass without inspection. Erives' brother, Jose Lehi Erives, acted as a middleman, negotiating dates, shipments and payment with smugglers; he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Aldo Erives received 10½ years. Other Border Patrol agents and their sentences were: Robert Espino, eight years; David Garcia, two years; and Delgado, one year.

U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT

• Santiago Efrain Valle, an agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in El Paso, was charged in March with trying to extort $20,000 from an immigration detainee at the El Paso Service Processing Center. Federal agents arrested Valle after he allegedly accepted $20,000 from undercover officers. According to court documents, Valle agreed to accept the money in exchange for dismissing pending immigration charges against the detainee and also changing his risk classification. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.

• Rafael Francisco Pacheco, an ICE agent in Tampa, who previously worked as a special agent with the U.S. Customs Service, was sentenced in March to seven years in prison for taking almost $18,000 in bribes from a drug trafficker. Between December 1999 and June 2001, Pacheco accessed government databases to obtain restricted information about the drug trafficker, Fidencio Estrada, then passed it on to him, prosecutors said. He also wrote a letter to request visas for Estrada's wife and daughter, falsely claiming that Estrada was assisting the government in criminal investigations.

U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES

• Robert Schofield, a USCIS district office supervisor in Fairfax, Va., was arrested in June, accused of illegally granting residency and issuing naturalization certificates to more than 100 unqualified immigrants. Qiming Ye, a Chinese citizen, also was charged for allegedly brokering deals between Schofield and Asian immigrants. One unqualified immigrant was granted residency status after meeting Schofield's wife in the Philippines, and then living with Schofield and baby-sitting his stepchild for a year, a court affidavit alleges. When stopped by Customs officials at an airport, the immigrant provided Schofield's name, cellphone and home telephone number from memory, the affidavit said. Passports seized from Ye's residence included green card stamps bearing Schofield's ID, and phone traces showed dozens of calls between Ye and Schofield's home number and his Department of Homeland Security cellphone, the court documents allege. "Numerous" allegations of bribery involving Schofield have been reported in the last decade, an investigator said in an affidavit. A trial date is pending.

• Phillip Browne, a district adjudication officer for USCIS in Manhattan, was indicted in May on charges of visa fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors contend he conspired with his sister and others to provide hundreds of residency papers, or green cards, in a sham marriage scheme that netted more than $1 million. The operation allegedly ran for at least 4½ years. According to prosecutors, Browne's sister ran a business that claimed to offer customers financial and legal help. Instead, prosecutors allege, the business provided fraudulent green cards for fees ranging from $8,000 to $16,000. Browne's sister allegedly paid U.S. citizens to enter into sham marriages with her clients, or produced phony documentation indicating a marriage to an American had already occurred. Based upon the sham marriages, immigrant clients then submitted green card applications, which were allegedly approved by Browne. In all, 30 people were charged. A trial date is pending.

• Robert Walton, an immigration employee for 20 years, was sentenced in April to a year in prison for approving citizenship and residency for immigrants who did not meet requirements. Prosecutors alleged that Walton accepted gifts — a diamond earring, a gold and diamond bracelet, and $5,000 — for approving applications. Walton said in a letter to the judge that the money was a loan and the jewelry pieces were not bribes but thank-you gifts. Walton, who previously worked as a border inspector, intelligence officer and supervisory inspector, said he sought the immigration adjudicator's position because he was "burned out" and wanted a regular Monday-Friday job. He insisted his actions were due to lack of training.

"The job ... had no Standard Operating Procedures, written or verbal," he wrote.

"I worked for my government for 18 years before I was given any direction in ethics," wrote Walton, a church deacon, who added he eventually received a book on the subject.

One person who provided jewelry to Walton was convicted in a separate case of bribing another Detroit-area immigration officer for help in illegally bringing immigrants to America from Lebanon. That officer, Janice Halstead, was sentenced in 2004 to two years in prison for supplying documents that allowed some 130 migrants from Yemen and Lebanon into the country.