Trial set for recruiters

October 25, 2007  --  Got something to say?
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By Joseph G. Lariosa
CHICAGO, Illinois (JGL) Judge Kathleen Cardone of the United District Court of Western District of Texas in El Paso set for Jan. 4, 2008 the new trial of the three Filipinos who managed to bring hundreds of Filipino teachers into the United States even if most of them have no job employments waiting for them.

Daryl Fields, public affairs officer of the United States Attorneys office in Houston, Texas, said the month-long jury trial will start on Jan. 4.

Named in the 26-page second superceding indictment, were OMNI Consortium, Multicultural Professionals, Multicultural Education Consultants Noel Cedro Tolentino; his wife, Angelica Tolentino; and his mother, Florita Tolentino.

They were charged with 19 counts of conspiracy to defraud the Government/Visa Fraud; Visa Fraud; Destruction of Records; Misprison of a Felony; Money Laundering; and Notice of Forfeiture of $2.7-M personal money judgment and other properties.

If convicted of one of the violations, the defendants face zero to 20 years imprisonment, according to one of the defense lawyers.

In its original indictment, a grand jury accused the Tolentinos and four others with about 40 counts of violations of laws, including conspiracy to smuggle aliens, visa fraud and money laundering.

At the eighth week of the jury trial, Judge Cardone declared last March 19th a mistrial when she learned that two of the 12 jurors read about the case in El Paso Times, a daily newspaper, making them prejudicial to the case.

Cardone reset a new trial this month. But when the defense lawyers withdrew from the case, the judge set the trial on the first Friday of the New Year to give the newly appointed lawyers Luis Isla and Ray Velarde familiarity with the case.

The Tolentinos were accused of recruiting mostly Filipino teachers for Ysleta Independent School District (YISD); Socorro Independent School District (SISD); El Paso School Independent School District (EPSID); all in El Paso; South San Antonio Independent School District (SSAISD); and Brownsville Independent School District (BISD).

They recruited more teachers than needed knowing said teachers had prior offers of employment rescinded and/or who had no confirmed teaching position with a specific employer, in order to bring such alien teachers to the United States for defendants financial gain. They carried this out using false documents and making false statements before the United States Department of State and CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Service) in order to secure the (H-1B) visas.

In BISD, although only 16 teachers were needed, OMNI requisitioned for 38. Originally, 100 job orders were placed. For YISD, the Omni Consortium recruited 53 teachers although only two were needed. Omni subsequently allowed 43 to travel to the U.S. Out of the originally requested 100 teachers for SISD, nothing was accepted but OMNI still sent 69 displaced teachers to the US. For EPISD, out of 33 recruits, three were not accepted but still traveled to the US.

OMNI usually asked prospective schools representatives to travel to the Philippines and other countries like China to interview recruits.

One of the representatives, Mario Aguilar, former superintendent of the Socorro Independent School District, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of failing to report gifts, including a trip to China within the trip to the Philippines, to a public official and was sentenced to one year of probation.

Aguilars wife, Vista Del Sol Elementary School Principal Magdalena Aguilar, was also sentenced to one year of probation for receiving a gift.

Raye Lokey, former Ysleta Independent School District associate superintendent for human resources, was sentenced to six months of probation for aiding illegal entry.

The U.S. attorneys office has said that 273 Filipino teachers were brought to the United States during 2002-04 and that fewer than 100 actually had jobs waiting for them.
(lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)


Posted by News Team | Filed Under US News 

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