Ex-INS Clerk Arrested on Amnesty Fee Theft Counts

A former clerk at the Santa Ana immigration office, who once boasted that he had a knack for detecting fraud, has been arrested and charged with stealing $5,000 in fees paid by people seeking amnesty, officials said Thursday.

A spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service said Michael D. Murray, 32, was charged with two counts of embezzling government funds after an investigation revealed that he allegedly stole amnesty fees from an unknown number of applicants.

Murray surrendered to Compton police Wednesday. He was released on $5,000 bond. If convicted, he could face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Joe Flanders, an INS spokesman in Los Angeles, said Murray worked as a clerk in the Santa Ana office, spending his time processing hundreds of applications from people who are seeking amnesty under the federal legalization program.

Under that program, individuals pay $185 and families $420 in application fees. Flanders said the money Murray allegedly took came from these fees. The money, most of it in personal checks, was discovered missing after investigators began looking into some of the cases assigned to Murray, Flanders said. He said the investigation began in October and a warrant for his arrest on suspicion of stealing government property was issued Feb. 25.

As to the lost application fees, Flanders said the INS had made it clear that the aliens will not have to repay the money.

In an interview with The Times last April, just before the Santa Ana amnesty office opened, Murray said he had been hired as a legalization adjudicator and said he was excited about being part of a successful amnesty program.

He said he had worked for the INS from 1976 until 1982 as an inspector at Los Angeles International Airport but had resigned to work for an aircraft production company.

As an INS inspector at the airport, Murray boasted that he had developed a special talent for detecting fraud but was “frustrated with us attempting to enforce the law without the means to do it.”

When he was rehired to work in the legalization effort, Murray said he was optimistic about its chances for success.

“I’m very much excited about the program,” he said then. “I think it can work. There are a lot of skeptics, but I’m not one of them.”

Asked how he felt about legalizing people he once might have arrested, Murray remarked: “I’ll be back on the other side again.”

Times staff writer Bob Schwartz contributed to this story.