INS Officer Faces Bribery Charges

An Immigration and Naturalization Service hearing officer was indicted Wednesday on charges of demanding sex and money from two Chinese women who were seeking political asylum.

Thomas A. Powell Jr. was the third local INS employee charged this month in separate and unrelated corruption cases.

Now on paid administrative leave, Powell is a defendant in a $10-million civil suit filed last year by his two alleged victims.

Powell, 58, of Pomona was charged with two counts of bribery and one count of violating civil rights under the color of law. If convicted, he could receive up to 31 years in prison.

“I think the government has made a grave error,” said Morton Boren, Powell’s defense lawyer. Boren said the case could prove embarrassing to the INS if it goes to trial, but declined to elaborate.

Earlier this month, federal authorities arrested a senior INS inspector on charges of smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States through Los Angeles International Airport.

Maximiano Ramos, a 19-year INS veteran, was accused of shepherding the immigrants past airport inspectors in return for as much as $10,000 a person. Four other people also were indicted.

Prosecutors said the five suspects took advantage of an INS rule that allows passengers en route to a third country to stop briefly in the United States while awaiting connecting flights.

Also this month, Maria Chica, an INS employee with 22 years of service, was charged with stealing permanent resident cards that were supposed to be destroyed and selling them for $3,500 to an undercover FBI agent.

The indictment returned against Powell provided scant details about his alleged dealings with the two Chinese asylum seekers, Xue Lu and Jie Hao.

However, according to their civil suit, the women appeared separately before Powell at his Anaheim office in 2000 after filing applications for political asylum. About a week later, Lu said, Powell phoned her at home, saying he wanted to see her alone at her apartment in Monterey Park.

She said he showed up there on Feb. 28, 2000, and took a seat on her bed, telling her he wanted to help her and indicating he would do so for cash, according to the lawsuit.

When she said she had no money to give him, Powell began fondling her and tried to remove her clothes, according to the suit. Lu was represented at the time by immigration attorney Douglas G. Ingraham. Shortly after the episode at Lu’s home, the lawsuit said, Ingraham received a call from Hao, whom he also represented.

She told the lawyer that Powell said he wanted to come by her home in Los Angeles to discuss her case. Ingraham contacted Justice Department officials, who set up a sting. They equipped Hao with a concealed recorder for two meetings with Powell.

No date was set for arraigning Powell, who remains free.