A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer has been convicted of accepting cash bribes and s*x from immigrants in the US without legal permission in exchange for employment authorisation documents.
Arnaldo Echevarria, of Somerset, New Jersey, was found guilty Thursday of bribery, making false statements and harbouring a person living in the US illegally. Attorney Michael Koribanics said an appeal is likely.
Echevarria received US$75,000 in bribes from immigrants not in the US legally in exchange for employment authorisation documents from 2012 to 2014, prosecutors said, and in one instance he demanded and received s*x.
He also was convicted of concealing his girlfriend’s immigration status and employing her in his hair salon while lying to ICE officials. Echevarria paid his girlfriend and other employees in cash to avoid paperwork, prosecutors said.
He was given permission by ICE in December 2012 to open a hair salon in West Orange after he certified that the salon wouldn’t conflict with his job and that he wouldn’t employ people who were in the country without legal permission. But prosecutors say he had his girlfriend, who he knew was in the country illegally, manage the shop.
Echevarria faces up to 15 years in prison and fines when he’s sentenced June 19.
Prosecutors say he falsely stated that the people who paid him had been granted temporary protected status, which is meant to allow people from countries experiencing environmental disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary conditions to stay in the United States.
Nuff a dem doing this.
let the gate be opened! a whole lot more will be having a field day, especially agents from the apprehension squads.
yes depends on who follow the news not just now a Jamaican girl was one of the victims he wxited the hwy with her took her to his house the gps told the tale, where do we go from here, any me woulda grine…… fi stay for some rusty wood a wait pon some a wi, pon top a hunger u do u lose u no do u lose smh, don’t think Jamaicans on his list a the ova fence protected people we got caviar dance 7 days a week, see harry dung deh fi a week, Jamaica no problem to rass, every jack man responsible fi himself