Immigration Agent Pleads Guilty to Taking Bribes

A federal immigration agent from Aliso Viejo is facing a prison sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of accepting $4,600 in bribes in exchange for permits that allowed two men to work in the United States, officials said Monday.

Jacquelyn Negrete, a seven-year veteran of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, pleaded guilty May 30 following a seven-month undercover investigation by the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Carl Moor in Los Angeles. The INS is part of the Justice Department.

Although Negrete faced up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count, prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain that requires her to serve between 10 and 16 months in custody, Moor said.

Negrete, 34, will be sentenced Aug. 7 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

The investigation began in September, when a Canadian man attempted to enter the United States at Buffalo, N.Y., and presented INS inspectors a permit that was later determined to be fraudulent. The man told inspectors that Negrete, who worked out of the INS office in Los Angeles, had provided him with the document, Moor said.

The Canadian said he paid Negrete $3,600 for the permit, and added that a British citizen had referred him to her. The investigation later revealed that the Englishman had paid Negrete $1,000 “to assist him in immigration matters,” Moor said.

The Justice Department launched an investigation, and an undercover agent posing as the Canadian man’s younger brother also asked Negrete for help with an immigration problem. Negrete charged the undercover agent $1,600 for helping him obtain immigration documents, Moor said.

Negrete was arrested and admitted taking the bribes, but she was not charged with taking the $1,000 from the Englishman, according to Moor.

“She was a special agent, an investigator, for the INS whose job description does not entail assisting people with immigration matters,” Moor said. “She was an investigator who investigated criminal violations of immigration law.”