ALISO VIEJO : Ex-INS Agent Sentenced for Taking $4,600 in Bribes

A former agent of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service was sentenced to five months in prison Monday for accepting $4,600 in bribes in exchange for permits that allowed two men to work in the United States.

Jacquelyn Negrete of Aliso Viejo also was ordered to serve an additional five months in home detention.

Negrete pleaded with U.S. District Judge Laughlin E. Waters in Los Angeles to allow her to serve the entire sentence in her home or at a community correctional facility. She said through her lawyer, Anna S. Ho of Manhattan Beach, that her crimes were a onetime mistake that deserved only a term of probation.

But Assistant U.S. Atty. Carl H. Moor, who prosecuted the case, objected to the request.

“This was not aberrant behavior, because by her action she clearly abused her position of trust,” Moor said. “When someone abuses the public trust, she must be brought to justice.”

Negrete was arrested following a joint investigation by the Office of Inspector General and the Department of Justice, which runs the INS.

The investigation began in September after a Canadian seeking to enter the United States at Buffalo, N.Y., presented INS inspectors with a permit later determined to be fraudulent. The man told inspectors the permit was supplied by Negrete, who worked as a special agent out of the INS office in Los Angeles.

Inspectors learned that Negrete charged the man $3,600 for the permit. He said he was referred to her by a British citizen who paid $1,000 for documents that allowed him to enter the United States.

An undercover agent posing as the Canadian man’s brother asked Negrete for help with an immigration problem. Negrete charged the agent $1,600 for helping him obtain immigration documents.

Negrete was arrested and pleaded guilty to two counts of accepting bribes.