Woman Who Posed as INS Officer Sentenced

A woman who defrauded Mexican nationals by posing as an immigration official and selling phony documents was sentenced Monday to more than five years in prison.

Valerie Ann Pena, 43, pleaded guilty to document fraud and impersonating a federal officer, along with state charges of welfare fraud and perjury.

The state charges arose out of the discovery that Pena, who lived in San Diego, was collecting welfare benefits while earning income from the immigration scam.

Pena defrauded at least 82 undocumented immigrants by selling them phony immigration documents over the last eight years, federal officials said. Pena was investigated after Mexican nationals reported to their government that she falsely promised to legalize their immigration applications in the United States in return for $1,000 or more.

Mexican consular officials said it was the largest and longest-running immigration scam they had encountered. They said Pena, working out of her home and an Anaheim hotel room, claimed to be an employee of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and even appeared in immigration court.

Pena’s arrest followed a 10-month investigation and is the first major case filed by a multi-agency task force designed to protect undocumented immigrants from such schemes.