Posted on 09/23/2005 6:43:28 AM PDT by Calpernia
CHICAGO - A federal grand jury handed down indictments September 13, 2005 that were unsealed yesterday charging 12 defendants for their roles in marriage fraud and alien smuggling schemes in the Chicago and Rockford areas that allegedly recruited and offered U.S citizens up to $10,000 to marry Lithuanian nationals for the purpose of fraudulently obtaining immigration benefits. Today's indictments are the result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The defendants were charged in two multi-count indictments that were unsealed today and announced by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. According to the indictment, U.S. citizens were recruited and offered between $8,000 and $10,000 to engage in fraudulent marriages with Lithuanian nationals. At times the U.S. citizens were instructed to travel to Lithuania to marry the foreign national, and other times the U.S. citizens were recruited to marry undocumented Lithuanian nationals already living in the U.S.
One indictment alleges that Remigijus Adomaitis, 28, recruited and paid a U.S. citizen to travel to Lithuania in November 2004 to marry a Lithuanian woman he had never met. After the marriage took place, Adomaitis accompanied the U.S. citizen to the U.S. embassy in Warsaw, Poland, to help him file paperwork that allowed the woman to fraudulently enter the U.S. in March 2005 as the wife of a U.S citizen. The U.S citizen was to be paid $1,000 after the marriage, and $250 a month for two to three years.
“The national security and public safety of our nation depends on an immigration system with integrity,” said Special Agent-in-Charge Elissa A. Brown of the Chicago ICE office. “ICE is restoring this integrity by aggressively targeting the criminals and human smuggling organizations that are motivated by pure greed and profit.”
The two indictments charge the following defendants:
United States v. Adomaitis, et al., 05 CR 534
Remigijus Adomaitis, 28, a Lithuanian national and permanent resident of the U.S., is charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and two counts of alien smuggling. Ina Bradley, 66, a Lithuanian national, is charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud. Robert Bradley, 54, a U.S. citizen, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and one count of marriage fraud. Inga Vesciunaite, 22, a Lithuanian national; Edith May Combs, 30, and Adam Pirlot, 24, both U.S. citizens, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud.
In March 2005 Adomaitis allegedly recruited a U.S. citizen (Individual A) to travel to Lithuania to marry a foreign national for the purpose of committing immigration fraud. As part of the conspiracy, Adomaitis helped the U.S. citizen fill out and file a U.S passport application so that the U.S. citizen could travel to Lithuania. In April 2005 Ina Bradley instructed the U.S. citizen to write letters to the foreign national to make it appear that they had an ongoing personal relationship. Adomaitis then paid the U.S. citizen $200 in exchange for agreeing to marry the foreign national.
In June 2004 Edith May Combs introduced Adam Pirlot to Adomaitis as someone who could participate in marriage fraud with a foreign national. Adomaitis offered to pay Pirlot $1,000 once the marriage took place, and $250 a month for two to three years thereafter. In November 2004 Pirlot traveled to Lithuania and met up with Adomaitis. On Nov. 30, Pirlot married Inga Vesciunaite, a Lithuanian woman he had never met, and then traveled to Warsaw, Poland, with Adomaitis to file paperwork that enabled Vesciunaite to enter the U.S. On March 23, 2005, Adomaitis and Pirlot met Vesciunaite at O'Hare airport upon her entry into the U.S.
The indictment also alleges that in August 2004 Adomaitis paid U.S. citizen Robert Bradley $1,000 to fraudulently marry a Lithuanian woman, then named Ina Saltiene. On Nov. 8, 2004, Ina Bradley filed a petition with the federal government to obtain legal immigration status based on her marriage to Robert Bradley. Robert Bradley was to be paid $200 to $300 a month until his "wife" received her green card.
United States v. Surantas, et al., 05 CR 535
Odeta Surantas, 36, a Lithuanian national and permanent resident of the U.S.; and Romualdas Surantas, 57, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lithuania, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit alien smuggling. Aidas Matkevicius, 32, a Lithuanian national, Rasa Bunikiene, 39, a Lithuanian national, Rasa Jokubauskaite, 24, a Lithuanian national, and Michelle Mendez, 20, a U.S. citizen, were also charged in the indictment.
The indictment alleges that some of the defendants conspired to arrange a fraudulent marriage between Jokubauskaite and a U.S. citizen to obtain legal immigration status for Jokubauskaite. On March 8, 2005, Matkevicius met with the U.S. citizen at a Denny's restaurant in Mundelein to discuss the marriage arrangements and informed him that he would receive $8,000 for engaging in such a marriage. On March 18, 2005, Matkevicius and the U.S. citizen traveled to a Rockford residence to discuss the terms of the marriage with Odeta Surantas. At that time the U.S. citizen met Jokubauskaite for the first time. During the meeting Romualdas Surantas took photographs of the U.S. citizen and Jokubauskaite to make it appear to the government that they were an intimate couple. That same day Jokubauskaite and the U.S. citizen obtained a marriage license at the Boone County Courthouse.
The indictment also alleges that Michelle Mendez entered into a fraudulent marriage with Matkevicius for the purpose of evading immigration laws, and that Bunikiene also committed marriage fraud by marrying an unnamed U.S citizen.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet S. Bhachu prosecuted this case. An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
ICE ping
12 is a start.
But then they'd be Hispanic, wouldn't they?
ICE DEPORTS 116 MEXICAN NATIONALS ON WEEKLY FLIGHT
The ICE Chicago office deported more than 6,100 aliens last year
My point is that deporting the Lithuanians changes nothing, and having some Poles or other Eastern European immigrants who are far better educated and skilled than the Latin Americans who are illiterate even in their own languages does not harm us.
Half of the deported Mexican nationals referred to in your link were caught because of violent criminal acts, not because of immigration enforcement.
So ICE did a full blown immigration investigation to pick-up the Lithuanians, but they got the Mexicans after local law enforcement had already caught them for criminal acts and essentially delivered them over handcuffed to ICE.
Wow, great immigration enforcement.
You see to just want to complain. If you were really interested, you would go look at all the press releases at ICE. No matter what I copy from there and post, you will find something wrong with it.
BTTT!
But I also see this as a politically motivated dog and pony show that does little to address the masses of illegals in this country.
I would change my mind when:
a) ICE stops wasting money doing 'investigations' to find illegals when all they have to do is walk into any restaurant, hotel, factory or construction site around Chicago and round them up;
b)when the business owners, supervisors, foreman and other enablers and beneficiaries are also rounded up and jailed;
c)when state and local governments have federal aid conditioned on automatically checking the immigration status of persons being arrested or applying for gov assistance (including hospitals), and when illegals found that way are turned over to ICE;
d)when effective restrictions are placed on wire transfers by private individuals outside the US.
e)when the borders are effectively controlled
Until then, it's all BS.
Judging from this thread, it appears to be succeeding.
a) ICE stops wasting money doing 'investigations' to find illegals when all they have to do is walk into any restaurant, hotel, factory or construction site around Chicago and round them up;
The investigations are to thwart the enabling networks. Until the gateways and networks are shut down, then just deporting is leaving the issue with a revolving door.
b)when the business owners, supervisors, foreman and other enablers and beneficiaries are also rounded up and jailed;
Business owners are being addressed.
c)when state and local governments have federal aid conditioned on automatically checking the immigration status of persons being arrested or applying for gov assistance (including hospitals), and when illegals found that way are turned over to ICE;
Rove just introduced legislature to address this.
d)when effective restrictions are placed on wire transfers by private individuals outside the US.
That is also being address and there are several press releases on this at ICE
e)when the borders are effectively controlled
That is also being addressed.
So, I sit here, ????
Excellent post...
Exactly..
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