Imam convicted of immigration fraud
The imam of the Dar Ehya Essunnah mosque in Brooklyn has been convicted in federal court in Manhattan on eight counts of conspiring to submit hundreds of false applications for illegal aliens to obtain visas and green cards under false names.
Muhammad Khalil was accused of sponsoring more than 200 applications for aliens seeking to obtain immigrant and non-immigrant work visas through the Department of Homeland Security’s religious-worker program. The program grants work visas and green cards or work permits to aliens with religious training and experience if U.S. religious organizations, such as mosques, sponsor them.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) spokesman Dean Boyd said Khalil filed fraudulent paperwork for numerous nonreligious workers to obtain visas for which they were not eligible in exchange for fees ranging from $5,000 to $8,000.
Mr. Boyd said Khalil also orchestrated a complex fraudulent payroll scheme in which he issued bogus payroll checks to the applicants on a biweekly basis, requiring the illegal aliens to return to him the amount of the check in cash, plus an additional amount that Khalil told the aliens was required to pay his employer taxes.
He said Khalil then filed tax returns for the mosque, issued W-2s to the applicants and required them to file personal tax returns stating they were employed as religious workers at the mosque. The conspiracy, he said, netted Khalil at least $600,000.
And I wonder how many of those people he brought in were terrorists. We should have immediately stopped the religious visa program after Sept 11, 2001. Why haven’t we?
One Comment
Your ACLU has been greased to favor such imports, it would seem, to be first to raise protest otherwise.. This is one reason why I’ll say your Foggy Bottom always lets in the worse sorts while preventing the good, honest but naive sorts. Has always been this way. These mischief making “spiritual leaders” are major threats.