Posted on 10/18/2007 6:27:42 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
BROWNSVILLE — Alberto Peña, a former administrative analyst for the Division of Student Affairs at University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College, was arrested over the summer in Houston by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents on charges of enticing an undocumented immigrant to enter the United States.
He and his twin brother, Bernardo, are implicated in obtaining H-2B temporary work visas for some 88 Indian nationals through their business AMEB Business Group Inc., according to authorities. Bernardo, who has not been charged in the alleged scheme, is listed as AMEB’s registered agent, public records show.
Alberto traveled to India on two occasions in the spring of 2006, according to court documents. The 88 Indian nationals began to arrive in the United States from late February to late March 2006 and entered the country through “various ports of entry,” court documents show.
The U.S. Consulate in Mumbai received an anonymous fax on Feb. 26, 2006, “which alleged that a recent group of visa applicants had each fraudulently obtained visas by paying an unknown U.S. person fees between $57,000 to $68,000,” court documents show.
On March 13, 2006, Alberto sent an e-mail to the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai, in which he indicated “he had heard about the Consulate’s attempts to contact the visa applicants, and stated, falsely, that the applicants were unable to comply with the request because ‘the workers are already working for Viscardi Industries,’” court documents show.
“In fact, though 88 visa applicants subsequently received H-2B visas and traveled to the U.S., none were ever employed by Viscardi,” according to the court documents.
AMEB and Viscardi Industrial Services entered into a client service agreement on April 14, 2005. On Aug. 15, 2006, AMEB submitted a petition to the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services requesting 150 non-immigrant workers from Mumbai under the H-2B temporary worker program.
Between March 8 and April 20, 2006, 168 cashier’s checks, traveler’s checks and money orders were deposited into various AMEB bank accounts, totaling $300,116, court documents show.
“The checks were all in increments of $9,800 or less and the time frame that these checks were purchased and deposited is consistent with the time frame when the Indian beneficiaries received their visas and arrived in the U.S,” court documents state.
Over the summer, AMEB’s Brownsville offices were relocated to 701 N. Post Oaks Road in Houston. The reason behind the relocation is unknown. ICE special agents secured a search warrant of AMEB’s Houston office and arrested Alberto on June 28 on a charge of encouraging an alien to unlawfully enter the U.S, according to court documents.
ICE special agents found Rogelio Gonzalez, a Mexican national, working at his Houston office. However, Gonzalez was supposed to be working for Labor Quality Contracting Inc, not AMEB.
In his federal case, Alberto is being represented by attorney Michael Young, who filed a motion to suppress evidence, alleging that when ICE special agents executed a search warrant they went out of the scope of the law, because they were looking for evidence connecting his client to the Indian scheme, court documents indicate.
A hearing on that motion is scheduled for 9 a.m. Oct. 31 before U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen.
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This is a very strange story, and I cannot figure out what is actually going on.
Why do were the Indian nationals willing to pay large sums of money to get into the US? Were they really unskilled workers? If so, where did they get the money?
If they were skilled workers, they would have no reason to come. They can get a salary in India that is nearly as much as we pay in the US.
“On Aug. 15, 2006, AMEB submitted a petition to the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services requesting 150 non-immigrant workers from Mumbai under the H-2B temporary worker program.”
Again, it looks to me that businesses are taking advantage of this legislation to entice cheap labor WITHOUT prior advertising of jobs available to the general populace, some of which are actually here legally...
They are labour alright but certainly not “cheap” labour. I am not sure why would any one spend $57,000 to $68,000 to bring in cheap labour cuz they are not likely to remain cheap once they have spent that amount of money.
Good point...for that matter, why do illegals settle for less? Just because of the entitlements they get?
I never can understand how someone doesn’t aspire to bettering themselves. I don’t ‘get’ it.
Odd story. I wonder if just because they are listed as “Indian nationals”everyone assumes they are really Indian. 88 “workers” can just as easily translate into 11 8 man teams. Coming here under a H2B visa seems easier than coming here for flight school training. Very curious indeed
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