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  1. #1
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    Mobile-based sting results in immigration charges against 10 as bank account swells

    Mobile-based sting results in immigration charges against 10 as bank account swells

    By Brendan Kirby
    July 17, 2013




    MOBILE, Alabama
    – A federal agent, posing as an immigration worker, sold authentic green cards to Mexican natives as part of a 2˝-year sting that led to the indictment of 10 people, according to allegations aired in court Wednesday.

    Tens of thousands of dollars piled up in a Mobile bank account while Homeland Security Investigations agents traveled back and forth to Texas to meet with people looking for paperwork allowing them to work in the United States, according to federal court records.

    Seven of the defendants pleaded not guilty to fraud charges Wednesday afternoon. Three others are fugitives.

    “A lot have been here for years, but they didn’t have any documentation,” said Jeff Deen, a lawyer for defendant Ofelia Martinez-Rodriguez.

    The defendants face up to five years in prison if convicted of a conspiracy charge. Eight of the defendants also face a charge of fraud and misuse of immigration documents, which carries a 15-year maximum prison sentence. All also face likely deportation to Mexico.

    An affidavit filed in court by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations agent indicates that Mobile’s only connection to the alleged conspiracy is that the city is the agent’s home base. A source close to the investigation said the undercover bank account amassed roughly $200,000 in payments from Mexicans who were buying documents.

    The operation began with Martha Gonzalez, a Texas resident who someone referred to the federal agent. Gonzalez, court records indicate, believed she was dealing with a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services supervisor with access to genuine green cards and temporary employment authorization documents.

    Gonzalez’s attorney, Assistant Federal Defender Latisha Colvin, did not attend today’s hearing. Assistant Federal Defender Peter Madden, who filled in for her at the arraignment, said he did not know enough about the case to comment.

    In a December 2010 meeting at a Candlewood Suites in Las Colinas, Texas, Gonzalez agreed to pay $25,000 for a green card, according to the affidavit.

    The criminal complaint indicates that the agent warned Gonzalez that what they were doing was illegal. She showed him a folder with paperwork confirming her identity and told him she had used a birth certificate of a woman named Gloria Lynn Rodriguez to enter the United States, the affidavit states.

    Later that month, Gonzalez, 37, wired $1,000 as a down payment and then in June 2011 handed the agent an envelope containing $4,000, according to the affidavit. The agent returned to Texas in January 2012 to deliver a green card in exchange for $20,000.

    From that point, according to the criminal complaint, Gonzalez began referring friends to the agent in exchange for a “finder’s fee.”

    The indictment lists other defendants accused of making illegal transactions with the undercover agent. Martinez-Rodriguez, 49; Josefina Gonzalez-Hurtado, 35; Juan Carlos Aguinaga-Reyes, 37; Maria Castillo-Pineda, 38; Antonio Gonzalez-Hurtado; and Armando Gonzalez, 41, pleaded not guilty.

    U.S. Magistrate Judge William Cassady scheduled the trial for September. He scheduled a detention hearing for Martha Gonzalez for next week. The other defendants in custody either already have been ordered detained or have holds placed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

    Authorities said Victor Hugo Esparza-Garay, Gerardo Gonzalez-Hurtado and Carlos Gonzalez-Hurtado, remain at large.

    http://blog.al.com/live/2013/07/mobi...esults_in.html


  2. #2
    Senior Member ReformUSA2012's Avatar
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    There were far more then 10 for $200k bank account. But they only go after those selling the documents when they should go after buyers as well!