Feds: Boston Homeland Security honcho harbored illegal alien

[maddezmom]

Source: Boston Herald

Feds: Boston Homeland Security honcho harbored illegal alien
By Richard Weir
Friday, December 5, 2008 - Updated 41m ago


A U.S. Homeland Security director charged with keeping illegal aliens from entering New England ports was busted this morning for allegedly employing a Brazilian housekeeper who snuck into the United States unlawfully, federal prosecutors charged.

Lorraine Henderson, 50, who supervised a staff of 220 employees as the Boston Area Port Director since 2003, was caught on tape in May warning her cleaning woman to be “careful” not to get caught by custom agents, according to an affidavit unsealed today.

“You have to be careful ’cause they will deport you. Be careful,” Henderson allegedly advised her housekeeper, who cooperated with authorities by wearing a wiretap while working in Henderon’s Salem condo.

“If you leave they won’t let you back. You can’t leave, don’t leave ’cause once you leave you will never be back,” she told the woman, who entered the United States illegally through Mexico, according to prosecutors.



Read more: http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2008_12...

[benld74]

1. WEEEEELLLLL Isn't that special!!!!

The DHS Director makes enough money and is busy enough to have and hire a maid!
I purchased my wife a 4 hour house cleaning from a company for her birthday last year. We clean the house ourselves and we BOTH work full time, with 2 kids in school This woman has one ALL the time!

[Bette Noir]

2. This tells me that even high-level Homeland Security directors

know that a person's immigration status has nothing to do with their value as human beings. This housekeeper was not a threat to the Republic, and her employer knew it.

While it's fun to play "gotcha!" with hypocritical Republicans, a rational immigration policy would be a higher good to pursue.

[provis99]

3. here's an idea:

let's keep the Brazilian immigrant, and deport the hypocritical Homeland Security director. Poetic justice, I would think. We take one immigrant from Brazil, and in exchange Brazil has to take one idiot Republican.

[silverojo]

5. Boy, are you delusional

This a-hole just hired an illegal alien to be able to pay slave wages--period.

You don't have to be a "threat to the Republic" to violate laws. In fact, the vast majority of criminals aren't looking to overthrow our government.

And yes, this illegal alien is a criminal. If you come here illegally, you've broken a federal law, no matter what your excuse might be. There are a lot of poor people in this country, too, but if they break the law, nobody feels sorry for them because they're poor.

All I ask is that immigrants enter legally and at least TRY to learn our language. It's really not that much to ask.

[Peace Patriot]

11. "...if they break the law, nobody feels sorry for them because they're poor."

Speak for yourself.

[No Elephants]

14. Exactly. Slave wages, paid in cash. No payroll deductions, no FICA contribution, etc .

[AlphaCentauri]

15. What type of criminals?

illegals are the only ones who break the law to work,
I'll like to see how many of those criminals in U.S.
jails have done it that way

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. "about $80 cash" - your "slave wages" is ridiculous hyperbole

$80 for a day's work is OK. Above minimum wage.

"And yes, this illegal alien is a criminal. If you come here illegally, you've broken a federal law, no matter what your excuse might be."

No, an illegal alien is not necessarily a criminal:

The mere unauthorized presence in the U.S. is a civil, not a criminal, violation of U.S. law. The removal of aliens not authorized to be in the U.S. is an administrative process, not a criminal process.

http://www.sheriff-okaloosa.org/Immigration/OCSO%20Posi...

Having said that, there is a problem with an official who is meant to enforce laws illegally employing someone - it's tax evasion. So I'd think losing her job, and a fine, would be appropriate.

[Richard Steele]

19. Pfft.

[Vattel]

4. Good for her

She knows the difference between an illegal immigrant who is a threat to national security and one who is not. I hope they hire more like her.

[Critters2]

6. She knows the difference between slave wages with no benefits,

and a living wage with social security and health care. Ms. Legree should be prosecuted.

[struggle4progress]

7. New England border protection chief charged with hiring illegal immigrants (Boston Globe)

... According to an eight-page affidavit unsealed today, Henderson had employed a Brazilian woman to clean her home for $75 to $80 every few weeks for several years. Henderson's fellow officers at US Customs and Border Protection told her in 2005 and 2006 that it was against the law to hire illegal immigrants and urged her to find another housekeeper. Not only did she ignore the advice, according to the affidavit, but when the housekeeper took time off to have a baby, Henderson also allegedly hired two of the housekeeper's Brazilian friends who were also in the country illegally.

After having a baby, the original housekeeper allegedly came back to work for Henderson, who counseled her to avoid detection by law enforcement. The housekeeper told her, according to the affidavit, that she had been living in the United States illegally for seven years after paying a man to smuggle her across the Mexican border.

"You have to be careful 'cause they will deport you. Be careful," Henderson told the housekeeper in a conversation Sept. 9, 2008, that was recorded on the wire. "Wow, wow, if you leave they won't let you back … you can't leave, don't leave … 'cause once you leave you will never be back."

After the conversation that day in her Salem home, Henderson increased the woman's pay from $75 to $80, according to the affidavit. The housekeeper, whose name was not included in the affidavit, agreed to wear a wire after being approached by a special agent with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/12/...


Could the exploitation be any clearer? "Be happy with $40 a week, dearie, or you'll be deported"

[stillcool]

8. I love this sentence..

"Fellow officers at US Customs and Border Protection told her in 2005 and 2006 that it was against the law to hire illegal immigrants and urged her to find another housekeeper."....

they had to tell her?

[judasdisney]

9. Flashback: Dec. 2001: Bush Obstructs Investigation of Boston FBI

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1214-01.htm

[douglas9]

<delete duplicate>

[douglas9]

10. Ms Henderson's Background

Lorraine Henderson is the Director of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for the Port of Boston. She has served in a variety of customs roles since 1975. Most recently she was the Branch Chief in the Commissioner's Situation Room at CBP Headquarters. Prior to this she was Customs' Port Director at Washington-Dulles Airport. She has contributed extensively to high-profile projects such as cargo selectivity, Automated Commercial System (ACS), Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), Automated Targeting System (ATS), and personal search. During her tenure at Customs, she has also served as an inspector and enforcement aide.

http://www.nesupplychainconference.org/bios/wolfehender...

[Peace Patriot]

12. Clearly, they threatened this poor woman, the housekeeper--in what ways

we do not know--to wear a wire to entrap someone who gave her a job and who was looking out for her. I think this is disgusting, and I would look for ulterior motives for "getting" Henderson. Does someone want her job? Did she displease the Bushwhacks in some way? What does she know about Bushwhack crimes? When are we going to start questioning investigations/prosecutions by a Bushwhack-run FBI and Bushwhack U.S. attorneys? As for myself, I don't trust anything they say or do, and I don't believe anything I read about it in the corpo/fascist press. Upfront disbelief and skepticism is the best rule. Maybe it's true, maybe not.

Then there are all the resources used on one poor housekeeper and her employer! Jeez, have we nothing better to worry about? Like maybe the heist of a trillion dollars by global corporate financial predators, and the hocking of our country unto the 7th generation? And the Forever War? And the on-going horror of Guantanamo Bay?

One employer. One housekeeper. What the fuck does it matter? It matters not at all. This investigation smells to high heaven, and it solves nothing. Items like this point to an out-of-control president and executive branch with the power to blackmail, and the power to use the law to punish people and for political propaganda. It's like the Feds raiding medical marijuana businesses--a complete and total waste of our country's fast-disappearing resources, on behavior that is doing no harm.

I think it's nuts.

[LisaL]

13. Oh for crying out loud.

Not everything in the world is a conspiracy. Henderson recommended her housekeeper to another custom's agent. That agent turned Henderson in to the officials.
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/2008_12... /

[AlphaCentauri]

16. One of those custom's agents who could not stop terrorist but housekeepers n/t

[Peace Patriot]

20. It is arguable, you know, that everything Bushwhacks do is a conspiracy.

Did they not conspire to put the Democratic governor of Alabama in jail?

Did they not conspire to fire U.S. attorneys who would not falsely accuse Democrats of election fraud?

Did they not conspire to out the CIA's top WMD counter-proliferation agent and her entire network, placing her agents and contacts around the world at great risk of getting killed?

Did they not conspire to use their "war on terror" to go after Iraq's oil?

Did they not conspire to provide themselves with immunity for torturing prisoners?

Have they not conspired to loot us blind--in every way imaginable, from no bid contracts for Cheney's buds at Halliburton, to secret off-the-books disappearances of billions of war dollars, to their recent Financial 9/11?

Are they not currently conspiring to plant Bushwhack operatives in civil service positions, and to sabotage all kinds of laws and regulations in their last months in office?

Have they not conspired to remove proof of their crimes from government records, or at least to keep them out of the hands of Congress and the American people?

It's true that not everything is a conspiracy, but everything the Bushwhacks do deserves to be treated like one, upfront, until proven otherwise. And that includes almost anyone that they have appointed, promoted or favored in other ways, in my opinion. They do not reward public service and honesty. They reward toadies, crooks and liars. And they have been in power for eight long years. So, why should we trust anything that their FBI or the DoJ does? In fact, we would be crazy to trust anyone in their employ.

[annabanana]

17. I will back you on this PP

Port Director is not a political appointment post. She was a career civil servant. There were probably others for whom her departure would be convenient.

You have a very good sense of smell, my friend.