Immigration Advisers Indicted In Alleged "Tell Feds You're Gay" Scam
01/07/2009
A+
|
a-
Print Friendly and PDF
An indictment in an immigration fraud case:
Alleged advice to asylum seekers: Tell feds you're gay

A Kent couple who claimed to be experts in immigration cases advised clients to falsely claim to be gay and subject to persecution or even death if they returned home so they could win asylum in the U.S., according to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday.

By Mike Carter Seattle Times,January 7, 2009

A Kent couple who claimed to be experts in immigration cases advised clients to falsely claim to be gay and subject to persecution or even death if they returned home so they could win asylum in the U.S., according to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Steven and Helena Mahoney were arrested Tuesday after an investigation that began in September, according to federal officials. Prosecutors allege the couple claimed to be experts in immigration cases while operating Mahoney and Associates in Kent.

The Mahoneys – who are not licensed to practice law in the state of Washington – are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit immigration fraud. Steven Mahoney also has been charged with three counts of immigration fraud, according to the indictment.

They appeared Tuesday afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler, who ordered Steven Mahoney to be held pending a detention hearing on Friday. Helena Mahoney was released.

The judge set the trial for Jan. 29.

The indictment alleges that in at least three instances the Mahoneys told immigrants to falsely state they were homosexual on immigration documents and that they feared persecution or even death if they returned to their own countries.[More]

Note that the "victims" are the immigrants who were advised to lie. I wrote years ago that
"[T}he immigration authorities are starting to consider Latin American homosexuals as victims of persecution because they are from countries with the same sodomy laws as were in force in every state in the union until 1961, New York until 1980, and in 23 other states until the Lawrence v. Texas decision.

Can we have some kind of moratorium here, where foreign states are given a few years to catch up to the latest liberal ideas promulgated by the Supreme Court?"

Print Friendly and PDF