http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1003/100304miami.htm
March 04, 2010
“Owner, employee of Miami language school charged with immigration fraud
ICE special agents also administratively arrest 81 student visa violators”
SNIPPET: “MIAMI - The owner/operator of a Miami-based foreign language school and one of its employees were indicted on four counts today for conspiring to commit a criminal offense against the United States, following an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Miami Office of Investigations.
Miami residents Lydia Menocal, 58, the owner and director of the Florida Language Institute (FLI), and Ofelia Macia, 75, an employee of the school, are suspected of fraudulently sponsoring foreign students by issuing student status to non immigrants without requiring them to maintain a full course of study as mandated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) federal regulations. ICE investigations uncovered that only about 5 percent of FLI students attended class on any given day.”
http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1003/100303tampa.htm
March 3, 2010
“Tampa woman sentenced for fabricating documents in 274 asylum petitions”
SNIPPET: “TAMPA, Fla. - Barbara Branks, 58, was sentenced to four years and nine months in federal prison yesterday for conspiring to make false written statements in order to submit asylum petitions, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Tampa and U.S. Citizenship Immigration Services (USCIS) in Tampa and Miami.
Branks, owner of La Gringa Professional Immigration Services, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington to forfeit an estimated $816,000 in profits she received from her fraudulent activities and was sentenced to two years of probation upon her release.”