Special Agent James Dominguez of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement entered a guilty plea to making false statements last week in a case which allegedly involved the passage of official immigration documents to an immigration attorney, as well as doctoring immigration computer records and sham marriages of foreign nationals.  The plea occurred on April 17, 2014 in federal court in Los Angeles.
Dominguez faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised probation and a $250,000 fine. Â While the former agent pleaded only to lying to law enforcement, he had also been charged with accepting bribes since 2001 from immigration attorney Kwang Man Lee, himself a former U.S. immigration official.
The U.S. Attorney's office maintains that Dominguez, Lee and other co-conspirators added and removed documents from the immigration files of Lee's clients. Â Lee allegedly paid Dominguez and others with cash and expensive gifts - including at least three Thailand vacations, computer and television sets and cold, hard cash.
Attorney Lee, a former INS agent, is alleged to have solicited bribes from aliens in exchange for fraudulent admission stamps to citizenship. Lee also supposedly submitted false immigration petitions. Â No word yet on a trial date or possible plea deal by Lee.
