Court documents said the government has identified 184 illegal immigrants who falsely received U.S. citizenship from Schofield, but Walutes said the government believes the actual number is in the hundreds. "We have to go out and arrest these people," Walutes said. "It's a huge endeavor."
Immigration Official Pleads Guilty to Falsifying Documents
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 1, 2006; A16
A Department of Homeland Security supervisor pleaded guilty yesterday to pocketing more than $600,000 in bribes in exchange for falsifying immigration documents to help Asian immigrants obtain U.S. citizenship.
Prosecutors said Robert T. Schofield issued fake documentation for hundreds of immigrants during an eight-year scheme he ran out of his Fairfax County office. Schofield, 57, was a supervisor for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which processes immigration applications, until he resigned in the past two weeks .
Court documents said Schofield employed a network of brokers who brought him immigrants needing citizenship, a green card or entry into the United States. Earning up to $10,000 per immigrant, he used some of the money to buy his $387,000 Fairfax home and to pay down the mortgage, the documents said. When Schofield was arrested in June, federal agents found $3,900 cash in his jacket pocket in his office.
When he was arrested, Schofield supervised a staff of nine at the agency's Washington District Office. He had been the acting assistant director for examinations from 1998 to 2004, supervising 50 employees.
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