Green-card agency worker faces immigration charge

By Elliot Spagat
ASSOCIATED PRESS

5:06 p.m. July 11, 2008

SAN DIEGO – An employee of a company that cleans the offices of a federal agency that issues green cards was arraigned Friday on charges of being in the country illegally, authorities said Friday.

Miguel Angel Mejia worked for a Northrop Grumman Corp. subcontractor when he was arrested Tuesday at a Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Chula Vista, a suburb of San Diego, said Marie Sebrechts, an agency spokeswoman.

Federal agents acted on a tip that Mejia assumed another person's identity to obtain a green card, according to a statement of probable cause.

Mejia, of El Salvador, did not enter a plea to a felony charge of re-entering the country after deportation, said Debra Hartman, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego. He was deported in March 2007, according to the probable cause statement.

Magistrate Judge William McCurine Jr. set bail at $30,000 and scheduled a hearing July 24. The judge appointed a defense attorney, Holly Hanover, who did not immediately respond to a phone message.

Northrop Grumman, a Los Angeles-based defense and technology company, collects fingerprints and photographs for citizenship and green card applicants nationwide, including the agency's Chula Vista office.

A company spokesman, Tom Henson, declined to comment on the case but said Northrop Grumman will cooperate with investigators.

Sebrechts, the agency spokeswoman, said the government does not keep employment records on its contractors.

“We don't contract employees, we contract companies,â€