An Agent, a Green Card, and a Demand for Sex

By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: March 21, 2008

No problems so far, the immigration agent told the American citizen and his 22-year-old Colombian wife at her green card interview in December. After he stapled one of their wedding photos to her application for legal permanent residency, he had just one more question: What was her cellphone number?

The calls from the agent started three days later. He hinted, she said, at his power to derail her life and deport her relatives, alluding to a brush she had with the law before her marriage. He summoned her to a private meeting. And at noon on Dec. 21, in a parked car on Queens Boulevard, he named his price — not realizing that she was recording everything on the cellphone in her purse.

“I want sex,” he said on the recording. “One or two times. That’s all. You get your green card. You won’t have to see me anymore.” ...

The 16-minute recording, which the woman first took to The New York Times and then to the Queens district attorney, suggests the vast power of low-level immigration law enforcers, and a growing desperation on the part of immigrants seeking legal status. The aftermath, which included the arrest of an immigration agent last week, underscores the difficulty and danger of making a complaint, even in the rare case when abuse of power may have been caught on tape ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/nyregion/21immigrant.html?em&ex=1206244800&en=591b8b723119cb97&ei=5087

I'd like to think this might be a lesson to any other agents who might try such a thing - but it likely will not stop them - they'll just find another way.

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I am so underwhelmed.

:puke:
:puke:
:puke:
:puke:

when I met an Australian woman in Japan who was doing the typical Aussie "gap year" routine of taking time off to travel the world before settling into a job.

She was working (illegally) in Japan at the time and planned to head to Canada next. I asked if she was planning to go to the U.S., and she said no, because the word among Australian women was that the only way to get even a temporary work permit for the U.S. was to have sex with an INS official.

That's just one anecdote, and the story about the Colombian reminded me of it.