From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Nov 16 2009 - 21:38:24 EST
*http://www.sacbee.com/crime/story/2327682.html* SACRAMENTO — For years, the Sekhon & Sekhon law firm was renowned as a
The firm, boasting a 95 percent success rate, helped more than 1,000
Many of those new asylees now stand to be deported, because as many as 700 —
In June, following a three-month trial in Sacramento's federal court, three
In the months since, those who work in the asylum system have had to
The firm's founders, brothers Jagprit Singh Sekhon and Jagdip Singh Sekhon,
Between 2000 and 2004, the defendants filed hundreds of claims for
The case exposed a vulnerability that experts say is inherent in the system:
Dana Leigh Marks, president of the National Association of Immigration
"My colleagues have said it's very difficult to tell an asylum seeker with a
One-sided stories
Marks said immigration judges typically have about 1,200 cases pending and
Often, she said, the applicant offers no supporting evidence.
"What makes asylum cases tricky for immigration judges is people don't get
That can work against some applicants who tell the truth but have no
The Sekhon firm became an asylum factory, court records show. Lawyers and
The firm's statement on behalf of a 51-year-old Romanian Pentecostal claimed
A 36-year-old Sikh from Punjab said she watched police beat her father, who
Those stories were fabricated, prosecutors said, but the firm backed up its
The case "reveals a systemic problem," said McGeorge School of Law professor
Marks would like to see more resources for investigations to ensure "the
In the Sekhon case, an alert asylum officer who had worked in Romania
Some advocates would like to see the government do more investigations in
Camil Skipper, an assistant U.S. attorney who helped Wagner with the
One harrowing tale verified
Unlike refugees who generally are granted legal status in the United States
Applicants must convince asylum officers and judges they've been persecuted
In a typical year, U.S. immigration courts receive upward of 50,000 requests
Nationwide, more than 420,000 people were granted asylum between 1990 and
Among them is Senait Berekete Ghebremariam, a former Eritrean journalist. In
The judge warned her that if she lied, she would be barred for life from
Ghebremariam nodded, then said she and her five sisters were circumcised as
She told the judge she was jailed for treason stemming from her dialect.
She testified the circumcision scarred her emotionally. She has no desire
She said she would be killed if forced to return.
Judge Geisse quizzed Ghebremariam about other Eritrean journalists, and she
Ultimately, the judge granted her asylum.
Gambill said the government's role isn't to block people like Ghebremariam,
"Asylum is a sacred trust, and my role is to weed out the ones who are not
In the wake of the Sekhon case, the San Francisco asylum office is
If the government ends up sending hundreds of cases back to immigration
"These are going to be hotly contested cases as to whether or not the person
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----
Law
firm's scam reopens hundreds of asylum cases
By Stephen Magagnini
Sacramento Bee
Posted: 11/16/2009 04:35:00 PM PST
Updated: 11/16/2009 04:35:01 PM PST
beacon of hope.
immigrants from a half-dozen nations get political asylum in the United
States based on a fear of persecution.
coached by the firm's lawyers and interpreters — told phony stories of
torture and rape to immigration judges and asylum officers.
of the firm's lawyers and two interpreters were convicted of conspiracy to
defraud the government. Prosecutors call it one of the most brazen
immigration scams in U.S. history.
confront serious questions about a time-honored process that is based
largely on trust: How did the firm get away with the fraud for so long? And
how vulnerable is the process to liars and con artists?
along with attorney Manjit Kaur Rai and Romanian interpreters Iosif Caza and
Luciana Harmath, return to court Dec. 17 for sentencing. Each faces up to 10
years in prison.
Romanians, Indians, Nepalis and Fijians. They made more than $1 million
charging clients for bogus addresses, medical reports, notarized
declarations and tales of rapes and beatings that never took place, court
records show.
With tens of thousands of refugees asking for asylum every year, overworked
judges often rely on gut instinct about the evidence presented. That
evidence frequently consists of little more than the applicant's testimony,
so the detailed documentation presented by Sekhon & Sekhon swung the scales
in their favor.
Judges and a veteran judge in San Francisco's immigration court, called the
Sekhon case "the worst-case nightmare come true for people who are cynical
about the asylum process to begin with."
good claim from a good liar," Marks said. "We're death penalty cases in
traffic court settings. If somebody tells me he's going to be persecuted
when he goes back home and I'm wrong, I'm sentencing him to death."
need more time on each "to allow the story to be fleshed out so you can
catch inconsistencies and implausibilities."
notes from their dictators," Marks said. "You're trying to decide cases
without traditional documents that court cases often rely on. We usually get
one story from one vantage point."
documentation, Marks said. "People can be suffering from post-traumatic
stress disorder that makes them terrible witnesses."
interpreters crafted fictional stories of persecution they thought would fly
— in some cases even when their clients had true tales of persecution.
that when he tried to bury a member of his congregation he was arrested,
cursed as a "devil," and beaten by police "until I lost consciousness."
had helped hide a member of the Punjabi independence movement. She claimed
"police kicked me in my sides, stomach, back, buttocks and legs."
cases with phony medical records and government documents, which made the
stories harder to reject.
Raquel Aldana. "The judges have heard so many sad stories, it's hard to say
who's telling the truth and who's not. They may have liked these cases
because they seemed well-substantiated."
courts can rely on the documents that are presented."
thought something didn't seem right about all the claims of religious
persecution in the post-communist era. Investigators called doctors and
officials in Romania and determined the documents were fabricated.
applicants' home countries. But, in some countries, sending an investigator
to substantiate claims of brutality could put the applicant's family at
risk, said Benjamin Wagner, the Sacramento-based U.S. attorney who
prosecuted the Sekhon case.
prosecution, said the Sekhon convictions in themselves should help
strengthen the asylum system: "We believe this case will serve as a
deterrent."
after they've fled their homeland to a third country, those applying for
asylum ask for refuge after entering the United States.
or have a well-founded fear they will be based on race, religion,
nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.
for asylum. The percentage of requests granted has risen from about a third
early in the decade to almost half from 2006-2008.
2008. Many believe asylum saved their lives.
one of several windowless immigration courtrooms in downtown San Francisco,
Ghebremariam, 38, told her story recently to Judge Loreto S. Geisse.
getting asylum.
babies, as is the custom of the Tegrinya ethnic group. She described a
country hostile for women. While in the army, she said, she was raped by a
brigadier general.
Once released, she fled. Her odyssey took her through Africa and South
America. She asked for asylum at the Arizona border and ended up in San
Jose, where she has relatives.
for physical intimacy, she said, and wishes she could have children, but
"I'm so worried about my physical condition and the pain it creates."
knew them. Prosecutor Scott Gambill had her recall dates and details, and
interviewed a midwife about the extent of Ghebremariam's genital mutilation.
who are deserving of protection.
deserving and don't have a well-founded fear of persecution," he said.
interviewing each of the 700 people caught up in the scam to decide whether
to revoke their asylum.
court, they're going to pose a tremendous challenge, Judge Marks said.
who says he was prejudiced by an unethical lawyer deserves a second chance,"
Marks said. "We're going to have to work through them case by case, judge by
judge, and it's the judge's job not to be cynical and burned out."
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