INS Special Agent Indicted on Charges of Perjury

A supervisory special agent for the Los Angeles office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service has been indicted on charges of perjury, the first INS special agent in memory to be charged with a crime.

The federal grand jury indictment of Alvaro A. Bracamonte, 56, of Huntington Beach was released Thursday. No decision has been made on Bracamonte’s job status, pending the outcome of the criminal charge, according to William Carroll, deputy director of the INS Los Angeles district.

Bracamonte supervises six INS agents investigating criminal immigration fraud, such as sham marriages and the submission of fraudulent documents. Carroll said Bracamonte’s indictment was the first time in his memory that an INS special agent had been charged with a crime.

“He will plead not guilty, and the evidence will prove him innocent,” said Bracamonte’s lawyer, Brendan J. O’Neill.

False Testimony Alleged

Bracamonte is accused of testifying falsely in defense of a former co-worker and his wife, an INS examiner, at their trial for accepting bribes for falsifying application forms to grant permanent resident status. Both Robert Anaya and his wife, Dorothy, were convicted in 1986 and are serving four-year prison sentences.

During the 1986 trial, Bracamonte testified that he had loaned the Anayas $160,000. He had earlier refused to talk to government prosecutors about the substance of his testimony, according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Maurice A. Leiter.

“If believed, his (Bracamonte’s) testimony would have been critical to the defense, because it would have explained away a large amount of the money spent by the Anayas during the scheme that the government claimed was obtained through bribery,” Leiter said.

The Anayas accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from 36 Taiwanese seeking to become permanent residents. The government proved that the couple received up to $40,000 per application. The aliens posed as Buddhist monks and nuns in a bid to use a federal law benefiting foreign clergy.

Bracamonte, who O’Neill said is married and has children, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.