The top counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has pled guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated theft after being charged with stealing the identifies of seven immigrants in order to scam them and credit card companies to the tune of nearly $200,000. A “bad hombre” indeed:
The former lawyer, Raphael A. Sanchez, used his position as the ICE chief counsel for immigration proceedings in several Western states to gain access to the victims’ personal information in federal databases, including their immigration records. Using those records, Mr. Sanchez created fake Social Security cards, driver’s licenses and utility bills to open credit card and bank accounts in their names, the authorities said.
Mr. Sanchez, 44, ran the elaborate scheme, which included his claiming three of the people as dependents on his tax returns, from October 2013 to October 2017, ordering items online and having them shipped to his house. To try to make the purchases appear legitimate, he also signed up for credit monitoring to track the immigrants’ credit scores and fabricated income statements, the Justice Department said.
“Raphael Sanchez is a good person who has made serious mistakes in violation of the law,” his attorney Cassandra Stamm claimed. Do good people usually steal the identities of human beings in deportation proceedings so they can go on shopping sprees?
The New York Times reported that Sanchez has resigned from ICE, an agency that has deported immigrants for broken taillights, driving without a license, and other mild offenses, despite having no criminal record. Sanchez is expected to get 48 months and will have to repay his victims. He’ll eventually get his freedom back. But for immigrants deported by his agency, that freedom will remain elusive.