Local News in Brief : Immigration Scam Draws Prison, Fine

A Northridge man was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine Monday for bribing an immigration official to approve falsified residency applications for Taiwanese businessmen.

Alfred T. Lin received a lighter sentence from U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson than did his two accomplices, former Immigration and Naturalization Service officer Dorothy Anaya and her husband, Robert, who each received four years in prison and fines totaling $440,000.

“It appears to me you are contrite,” Wilson told Lin. “You are older than the Anayas and your health may not be so good. I think you feel a sense of disgrace, which I’m not so sure the Anayas feel.”

Lin, 51, told Wilson he acted out of patriotism for the homeland he left in 1965 when he agreed to solicit thousands of dollars from Taiwanese who wanted to become legal residents in the United States.

“I was torn between helping people and a broken U.S. law . . . It is wrong,” Lin said. “I admit my guilt. I should have known better.”

Lin pleaded guilty in January to six counts of a 31-count indictment returned against him and the Anayas last year.

Prosecutors said the three participated in a yearlong scheme from 1981 to 1982 in which Lin collected up to $40,000 each from 36 Taiwanese immigrants in return for permanent residency permits issued by Dorothy Anaya, an INS employee for 15 years.

Prosecutors said the three shared more than $500,000 in the arrangement.