Homeland Security regional director arrested for hiring illegal immigrants

[nichomachus]

You just can't make this stuff up.

Homeland Security official hired illegal immigrants to clean house

The regional director of Homeland Security, Customs, and Border Protection was charged today with repeatedly hiring illegal immigrants to clean her Salem home after one cleaner wore a wire during an undercover investigation.

Lorraine Henderson is the director of the Port of Boston, overseeing 190 armed federal officers who patrol major airports and shipping terminals in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. She is expected to appear today in US District Court in Boston on a charge of encouraging an illegal immigrant to remain in the country.

"She’s supposed to be deporting aliens, not hiring them," said Assistant US Attorney Brian T. Kelly, chief of the public corruption unit.

Henderson was arrested on the criminal complaint this morning at her home in Salem by agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Professional Responsibility. If convicted of the charge, she faces as much as 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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.

[natrat]

1. corruption everywhere , everywhere

[EFerrari]

4. Yep. The whole country needs to be tented

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Bush appointee ....... quelle surprise .....

[anigbrowl]

3. Hmmm...mixed feelings

Professional negligence to the max, but offset by a degree of personal humanity. Dunno how big her home was; $80 might be exploitive or it might be an OK deal if it was just a few hours. Wonder if the undercover deal included a green card.

Our immigration laws badly need reform.

[nichomachus]

5. Mixed feelings about what?

She was supposed to uphold the law and she deliberately broke the law. That seems pretty clear to me.

It most assuredly wasn't negligence. Negligence would be if she failed to check it out. But she knew the woman was illegal. She knew it was against the law. And she gave the woman advice on how to circumvent the law. This person was a law enforcement official. That is not negligence. In fact, it magnifies the seriousness of the crime.

So, she gave the woman an extra $5 -- whoop-de-fucking-doo.

[anigbrowl]

6. I'm not talking about the $5

She also kept the lady hired and gave her advice. You're right, negligence was the wrong word - better I said hypocrisy or something. The lady should have been upholding the law (because she was happy to take a check for doing so) but I also think immigration law is unjust and unfair.

[katandmoon]

7. ITA and I really can't get worked up about this one at all.

[malaise]

8. Hahahahhahah

Love it :rofl: