Del Departamento de Justicia ...

[YeahMan]

FORMER IMMIGRATION OFFICIAL GETS 15 MONTHS IN PRISON
FOR TAKING BRIBES FROM ASYLUM APPLICANTS

A former asylum officer with the Immigration and Naturalization Service was sentenced today to 15 months in federal prison for taking bribes from immigrants whom he helped obtain asylum with false stories about their native land, United States Attorney Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced.
Appearing in United States District Court in Santa Ana, Ralph Leyva Jr., 47, of Corona, was sentenced for his conviction in June on five felony counts. Leyva was sentenced by United States District Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler, who presided over a trial in which the defendant was found guilty of two counts of bribery, two counts of immigration document fraud and one count of making a false statement to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Leyva, who worked at an INS facility in Anaheim, took a $1,500 bribe from an asylum applicant from Nicaragua in return for recommending asylum to remain in the United States. That person who paid the bribe had previously applied for asylum, but had been rejected because he was found to have persecuted others in Nicaragua. The applicant stated to the first asylum officer who interviewed him that he had executed contra prisoners during the Nicaraguan civil war, which was determined to make him ineligible for asylum.

Leyva was also convicted of soliciting a bribe worth approximately $2,600 from another individual in return for submitting fraudulent immigration documents. In the documents, Leyva fabricated a claim that the individual was beaten and tortured in Nicaragua by the Sandinistas and therefore should be granted asylum in the United States.
The immigration case of the first person to pay the bribe is still pending. The second bribe was paid by an undercover informant working for the government.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General.

Release No.248