Man sentenced to four years behind bars for burglarizing Asian homeowners in New Jersey

ILLUSTRATION

A New Jersey, man was sentenced Aug. 15 to 50 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy that targeted local Asian and Asian American residents burglarizing them at their homes, said US Attorney Philip R. Sellinger at a media conference.

Randi Barr, 42, of Vauxhall, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before US District Judge Evelyn Padin to charges against him with one count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property. Judge Padin imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

From Dec. 2, 2016, to March 20, 2019, Barr and others participated in a conspiracy to burglarize the residences of certain Asian small business owners living in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware of large sums of money, valuable jewelry, and other items, and then transport the stolen goods in interstate commerce, including to Barr’s residences in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

In one instance in 2019, $500,000 in cash was taken from a single home in Eatontown, N.J., officials said.

Seven others were charged in the case along with Barr in 2021 — Rabine Armour, of Easton, Pennsylvania, Kevin Burton, of Newark, Kevin Jackson, of Rahway, Thomas Rodgers, of Newark, James Hurt, of Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania, Sherman Glasco of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Terrance Black, of Irvington. All of the defendants were charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Padin ordered restitution and forfeiture of $127,661.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the blog Views From the Edge.

Two suspects arrested in Beijing-directed targeting of Falun Gong in the US

Chinese Americans demonstrate against the Peoples Republic of China.

A federal court in the Southern District of New York Friday, May 26, unsealed a complaint charging two California men with acting and conspiring to act as unregistered agents of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), conspiring to bribe and bribing a government official, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

According to the complaint, John Chen, aka Chen Jun, 70, a Los Angeles resident and former citizen of the PRC, and Lin Feng, a Los Angeles resident and PRC citizen, allegedly participated in a PRC government-directed scheme targeting US-based practitioners of Falun Gong — a spiritual practice banned in the PRC. 

As the contents of the complaint were being revealed in New York, the two suspects were arrested the same day in Los Angeles.

“The Chinese government has yet again attempted, and failed, to target critics of the PRC here in the United States,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland at the press event. Their intended target were the US followers of Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, based broadly around meditation, was banned by China in 1999 after 10,000 members appeared at the central leadership compound in Beijing in silent protest. The group has called for people to renounce the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

The PRC government has designated the Falun Gong as one of the “five poisons,” or one of the top five threats to its rule. In China, Falun Gong adherents face a range of repressive and punitive measures from the PRC government, including imprisonment and torture.

 “We allege the defendants in this case attempted to bribe someone they thought was an IRS agent in order to further the Chinese government’s campaign of transnational repression in the United States. But the individual they attempted to bribe was in fact an undercover law enforcement agent, and both defendants were arrested this morning (May 26). 

“The Department of Justice continues to expose the Chinese government’s brazen attempts to perpetrate transnational repression, this time through attempted bribery,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. “As highlighted by today’s arrests and charges of conspiracy, bribery, and money laundering, we will not tolerate efforts by the PRC or any foreign government to intimidate, harass, or undermine the rights and freedoms enjoyed by all who live in the United States.”

“China’s government has once again shown its disregard for the rule of law and international norms,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “The FBI will not tolerate CCP repression — its efforts to threaten, harass, and intimidate people — here in the United States. We will continue to confront the Chinese government’s efforts to violate our laws and repress the rights and freedoms of people in our country.”

“John Chen and Lin Feng allegedly waged a campaign at the behest of the Government of the People’s Republic of China to influence a U.S. Government official in order to further the PRC Government’s repression of practitioners of Falun Gong,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York. “Efforts to manipulate and use the arms of the U.S. Government to carry out the PRC Government’s autocratic aims are as shocking as they are insidious. My office will work vigorously to protect against malign foreign influences.”

The complaint alleges that from at least approximately January 2023 to May 2023, at the direction of the PRC government,via an identified PRC government official (PRC Official-1), tChen and Feng worked too further the PRC government’s campaign to repress and harass Falun Gong practitioners in the US. 

As part of the PRC government’s campaign against the Falun Gong, Chen and Feng allegedly engaged in a scheme to manipulate the IRS’s Whistleblower Program in an effort to strip the tax-exempt status of an entity run and maintained by Falun Gong practitioners (Entity-1). 

After Chen filed a defective whistleblower complaint with the IRS (the Chen Whistleblower Complaint), Chen and Feng paid $5,000 in cash bribes, and promised to pay substantially more, to an undercover agents posing as an IRS agent,

Neither Chen nor Feng notified the Attorney General that they were acting as agents of the PRC government in the United States which they would be required to do.

In the course of the scheme, Chen, on a recorded call, explicitly noted that the purpose of paying these bribes, which were directed and funded by the PRC government, was to carry out the PRC government’s aim of “toppl[ing] . . . the Falun Gong.” 

During a call intercepted pursuant to a judicially authorized wiretap, Chen and Feng discussed receiving “direction” on the bribery scheme from PRC Official-1, deleting instructions received from PRC Official-1 in order to evade detection, and “alert[ing]” and “sound[ing] the alarm” to PRC Official-1 if Chen and Feng’s meetings to bribe Agent-1 did not go as planned. 

Chen and Feng also discussed that PRC Official-1 was the PRC Government official “in charge” of the bribery scheme targeting the Falun Gong.

As part of this scheme, Chen and Feng allegedly met with the undercover agent in Newburgh, New York, on May 14. During the meeting, Chen gave the fake IRS official a $1,000 cash bribe as an initial, partial bribe payment. Chen further offered to pay the undercover agent a total of $50,000 for opening an audit of Entity-1, as well as 60% of any whistleblower award from the IRS if the Chen Whistleblower Complaint were successful. 

On May 18, Feng paid the undercover agent posting as an IRS employee a $4,000 cash bribe at John F. Kennedy International Airport as an additional partial bribe payment in furtherance of the scheme. Chen allegedly obtained funding from the PRC government to make bribe payments during his trips to the PRC in the course of the scheme.

Chen and Feng are each charged with:

1. one count of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General and to bribe a public official, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison;
2. one count of acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the Attorney General, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; 
3. one count of bribing a public official, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison; and (4) one count of conspiring to commit international money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The arrests of the two suspected foreign agents in California is the latest in a focus of on suspected PRC agents in the US who have been engaged in alleged activities against US residents. Last month federal authorities arrested two men in New York City who have been charged with harassing and threatening New York residents of Chinese descent. 

“No other nation poses as severe a threat to the democratic values of the United States as the government of the People’s Republic of China,” said FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate. “The FBI will not stand by as the PRC attempts to weaponize our institutions and programs and attack the rights of those on US soil. Any attempt to repress or harass individuals runs directly counter to the ideals our nation was founded upon, and it simply will not be tolerated.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.

US agents arrest Massachusetts man for acting as a PRC agent and abridging rights of Chinese Americans

The federal government arrested Litang Liang, above, for acting as a PRC agent.

A Massachusetts man was arrested on May 9 for allegedly acting as an agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) without providing notification to the US Attorney General.

Litang Liang, 63, of Brighton, was indicted on one count of acting as an agent of a foreign government without providing notification to the US Attorney General and one count of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without providing notification to the US Attorney General.

“We will not tolerate the PRC’s efforts to interfere with public discourse and threaten civic participation in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “This case demonstrates, once again, the lengths that the PRC government, including its Ministry of Public Security, will go to target people in the US. who exercise their rights to speak out against the PRC.”

Liang's arrest follows the arrests last month of two men in New York accused of allegedly intimidating, harassing and threatening Chinese Americans on behalf of the PRC. Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, both New York City residents, were arrested April 17 face charges of conspiring to act as agents for China and obstruction of justice.

Americans were made aware of the extent of PRC espionage efforts earlier this year when a "spy balloon" from China was discovered floating across the US and Canada. Although the PRC claimed it was a weather balloon that went off course, It was shot down by US jets.

"To be clear, the adversary is not the Chinese people or people of Chinese descent or heritage," cites the FBI. "The threat comes from the programs and policies pursued by an authoritarian government".

“The Department of Justice will protect these individual rights and protect our country against those who seek to unlawfully act on behalf of foreign governments while within our borders,” said US Attorney Rachael S. Rollins for the District of Massachusetts. 

“We allege that Mr. Liang engaged in a series of acts on behalf of the PRC government including providing information on Boston-area residents, organizations and dissidents to PRC government officials – potentially placing people at risk here in Massachusetts and abroad. Attempts to repress constitutionally protected rights here in the United States will never be tolerated. Anyone who infringes upon those rights on American soil will be identified and held to account,” Rollins continued. 

The US requires agents of foreign countries to register with federal authorities government. It has been found that  those agents often act against the interests of the United States and its citizens and legal residents.

According to the charging documents, from in or around 2018 through at least 2022, Liang acted within the United States as an agent of the PRC government by allegedly providing PRC government officials with information on Boston-area individuals and organizations; organizing a counter-protest against pro-democracy activists; providing photographs of and information about the demonstrators to PRC government officials; and providing the names of potential recruits to the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security. At no point did Liang notify the US Attorney General that he was acting as a PRC government agent.

Specifically, beginning in or around 2018, Liang allegedly provided information about Chinese individuals and organizations in the Boston area to PRC government officials – including PRC officials formerly in the United States, the Ministry of Public Security, and the United Front Work Department, an entity which reports directly to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and works to further the CCP’s goals.

It is alleged that Liang provided PRC government officials with information regarding members and leaders of Boston-area, Chinese family associations and community organizations with pro-Taiwan leanings. 

Additionally, it is alleged that Liang sent information regarding anti-PRC activists to PRC officials including: identification of an individual he accused of having “sabotaged” PRC flags in Boston’s Chinatown in October 2018; video of an activist attending the “Boston Stands with Hong Kong” march in August 2019; and photographs of anti-PRC demonstrators in front of the Boston Public Library in September 2019.

The charge of acting as an agent of a foreign government without providing notification to the US Attorney General provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. The charge of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without providing notification to the US. Attorney General provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. 

“The FBI is not going to stand by and allow undeclared agents of the People’s Republic of China to operate in our country unchecked," said Assistant Director Suzanne Turner of the FBI Counterintelligence Division. "We will continue to steadfastly enforce the law of the land, uncovering these efforts and holding accountable all those who work with foreign governments to violate our laws.” 

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.

FBI's updated report now shows dramatic rise in hate crimes

Hate crimes against Asian Americans are is rising, according to FBI data.

In a new report with updated data, the FBI reissued a new report that shows hate crimes rising to its second highest level since it began collecting hate crime data in 1990.

Hate crimes in the United States surged 11.6% in 2021 from 2020, with the majority based on racial, ethnic and ancestral bias, the FBI said on Monday. Most disturbingly,  hate crimes against Asians rose 167%

“Preventing, investigating and prosecuting hate crimes are top priorities for the Justice Department, and reporting is key to each of those priorities.," said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta in a statement."The FBI’s supplemental report demonstrates our unwavering commitment to work with our state and local partners to increase reporting and provide a more complete picture of hate crimes nationwide."

A flawed report released last year showed a drop in hate crime drawing heavy criticism from civil rights organizations. The FBI admitted that a switch to a new data system meant  52% of the country's jurisdictions, including some large cities and states, did not meet the reporting deadline resulting in lower total numbers nationally.

The updated report which includes data from more jurisdictions, including New York City and Los Angeles, show that reported hate crime incidents rose to 9,065 in 2021 from 8,120 in 2020.

Officials say the top five hate crime categories reported for 2021 were anti-Black, anti-white, anti-gay male, anti-Jewish and anti-Asian.

The bureau said 64.5% of victims in 2021 were targeted because of their race, ethnicity or ancestry bias while 15.9% were targeted because of sexual-orientation bias and 14.1% were targeted because of religious bias.

For its supplemental report, FBI officials said they were able to retroactively include crime data from some of the country's largest cities that had not yet made the switch to the new reporting format.

That meant that some large cities such as Los Angeles and New York City are now included in its hate crime report, which compares trends between 2020 and 2021. Meanwhile, Chicago was able to provide two quarters worth of data for the report.

While the NIBRS 2021 hate crime dataset reported 7,262 incidents and 8,673 related offenses as being motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity, the supplemental hate crime dataset reports involve 10,840 incidents and 12,411 related offenses. The supplemental reporting figure is higher as it represents a larger population as more agencies were able to submit via the SRS system. (Due to rounding, percentage breakdowns may not add up to 100 percent.) 

The FBI defines hate crime as a criminal offense "motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias(es) against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity."

The bureau’s annual report is widely used by law enforcement, policymakers, experts and community leaders as a broad measure of hate crime in America. 

Victims of Hate Crime Incidents 

• Over 10,500 single-bias incidents involved 12,411 victims.  
  
  • A percent distribution of victims by bias type shows that
  • 64.5% of victims were targeted because of the offenders’ race/ethnicity/ancestry bias,
  • 15.9% were targeted because of the offenders’ sexual-orientation bias,
  • 14.1% were targeted because of the offenders’ religious bias,  
  • 3.2% were targeted because of the offenders’ gender identity bias,  
  • 1.4% were targeted because of the offenders’ disability bias, and  
  • 1.0% were targeted because of the offenders’ gender bias. 
• There were 310 multiple-bias hate crime incidents that involved 411 victims.  

Offenses by Crime Category 

• Of the 8,327 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in the updated 2021 dataset,  
  • 43.2% were intimidation,  
  • 35.5% were simple assault, and  
  • 20.1% were aggravated assault.  
  • 19 rapes and 18 murders were reported as hate crimes.  
  • The remaining 70 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons were reported in the category of other.  
• Of the 3,817 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property, 71.2% were acts of destruction/damage/vandalism.  
• 267 additional offenses were classified as crimes against society. This crime category represents society’s prohibition against engaging in certain types of activity such as gambling, prostitution, and drug violations. These are typically victimless crimes in which property is not the object.
  

President Biden has made fighting hate crimes, particularly those assaults against Asian Americans, one of his administration's priorities.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has led a concerted effort to gather more accurate data on hate crimes, including more translations services in Asian languages and communications and more outreach and training for law enforcement agencies.

"We are continuing to work with state and local law enforcement agencies across the country to increase the reporting of hate crime statistics to the FBI," says Gupta. "Hate crimes and the devastation they cause communities have no place in this country. The Justice Department is committed to every tool and resource at our disposal to combat bias-motivated violence in all its forms.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

US Attorney General appoints Asian American as Special Counsel investigating Biden

Special Counsel Robert Kyoung Hur

An Asian American attorney was named special counsel to investigate how classified documents ended up in President Biden's home and at his private office.

Robert Kyoung Hur, was named by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to look into the possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records discovered at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and the Wilmington, Delaware, private residence of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

“I will conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial, and dispassionate judgment. I intend to follow the facts swiftly and thoroughly, without fear or favor, and will honor the trust placed in me to perform this service,” Hur said in a statement,

His parents are Haesook Hur and Dr. Young Hur of Monroe Township New Jersey, The New York Times reported. Her father is an anesthesiologist, according to a NYTimes article.

According to the biography, Hur, 50,  was born in New York and “received his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served as Executive Editor of the Stanford Law Review. He is also a board member of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of D.C.

At the Justice Department, Hur worked with former Trump deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the former deputy attorney general told CNN.

“Rob has been around long enough – he knows what he is getting into,” said Rosenstein.

Appointed by Donald Trump and unanimously confirmed by the US Senate, he served from 2018 to 2021 as US Attorney in Maryland, setting strategic priorities for and supervising one of the largest and busiest US Attorney’s Offices in the nation, according to his bio.

As a US Attorney, one of the high-profile cases he “led criminal cases against former Mayor Catherine Pugh, a Democrat, and two state delegates,” reported The Baltimore Sun. Pugh was convicted of wire fraud and tax evasion, according to a press release from the  DOJ.

Hur was also appointed by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to chair a the Asian American Hate Crime Workgroup in 202, according to CBS News, which added that the group was also charged with addressing “the rise in anti-Asian discrimination and violence.

Shortly after Biden was sworn into office as President, Hur, described as a "conservative" Republican, resigned from the Department of Justice and went into private practice with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and Co-Chair of the Firm’s Crisis Management Practice Group and a “member of the firm’s White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group and the National Security Practice Group.”

The White House confirmed that “a small number” of materials with “classified markings” were found and turned over to the federal government, NPR reported.

The DOJ order made public on Thursday lays out the task ahead of Hur.

“The document authorizes him to investigate whether any person or entity violated the law in this matter,” Garland said during his brief press conference, in which he touted Hur’s “long and distinguished” record as a prosecutor.

Biden's attorneys reportedly found the Obama-Biden administration records during a search completed Wednesday night of Biden’s residences in both Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Del. All but one of the classified documents were found in a storage space in Biden’s Wilmington garage, with one other record found in an adjacent room, read a statement from Special Counsel to the President Richard Sauber.

Republicans were quick to to compare Biden's case with the way Trump hoarded nearly 100 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago for more than a year—even when the National Archives notified his office that the records were wrongly stored there illegally. It wasn’t until FBI agents raided the mansion in August 2022 that the Trump-held documents were recovered.

“People know that I take classified documents and classified material seriously," said Biden. "I also said we’re cooperating fully with the Justice Department’s review.”

In contrast to Trump's attempts to stop the probe of his documents, Biden’s personal lawyers say they “immediately” notified the federal government about their discoveries at both the think tank and Biden’s home garage. 

“As we stated previously, we are fully cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in possession of the Archives,” Sauber said in the statement.

Correction: Jan. 13, 10:30 a.m. to correct age of Robert Hur.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Garland issues Memorandum to improve access to services for people with limited proficiency in English

Attorney General Merrick Garland

A press release from the Department of Justice, opened with this message in Tagalog:

Naglathala ngayon ang Departamento ng Hustisya ng isang panandaan na humihiling sa mga ahensiyang pederal na suriin ang kanilang mga gawi at mga patakaran ukol sa daan sa wika upang patibayin ang pakikipag-ugnayan ng pamahalaang pederal sa mga indibidwal na may limitadong kasanayan sa Ingles (LEP).

For those who don't speak Tagalog, one of the Philippines dialects, here is the English translation:

The Justice Department issued a memorandum today requesting that federal agencies review their language access practices and policies to strengthen the federal government’s engagement with individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP).

“All people in this country, regardless of the language they speak, deserve meaningful access to programs and activities that are conducted or supported by federal agencies,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “The Justice Department is committed to working with our federal partners to address linguistic barriers in governmental services that deny individuals a full opportunity to participate in economic, social, and civic life.”

This memorandum outlines a course of action for federal agencies to improve, modernize, and carry out their language access responsibilities under Executive Order 13166, “Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency.” 

As set forth in the memorandum, the Civil Rights Division, with assistance from the Office for Access to Justice, will spearhead a collaborative effort to determine: 

• whether agencies can further update their language access policies and plans; 

• whether agencies are effectively reaching LEP individuals when disseminating information about federal resources, programs, and services; 

• whether agencies have considered updates or modifications to guidance to federal financial assistance recipients regarding their obligations to provide meaningful language access under the requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its implementing regulations; and 

• whether agencies can adapt their digital communications to welcome LEP individuals.

This memorandum builds on existing efforts by the Department of Justice to engage with LEP individuals, including a new focus on expanding language access assistance in the Department’s 2022-2026 Strategic Plan. 

In May 2022, Attorney General Garland appointed Ana Paula Noguez Mercado as the Department’s Language Access Coordinator within the Office for Access to Justice to help ensure that the Department is leading by example. 

The Office for Access to Justice has since expanded its language access team and is leading the Department’s Language Access Working Group to provide technical assistance and training across components as they continue to improve language access for all. 

The Civil Rights Division continues to maintain www.LEP.gov, which provides resources and information to help expand and improve language assistance services for LEP individuals, in compliance with federal law.

Appropriately, the translation of this press release is also available in:

Arabic

Chinese – Simplified

Chinese – Traditional

Korean

Spanish

Tagalog

Vietnamese

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Filipinos busted in alleged fake marriage scam

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Marcialito Biol Benetiz, right, was the alleged ringleader of a fake-marriage scheme.

An illegal operation that allegedly arranged hundreds of sham marriages led to the arrests of 11 individuals, including the Filipino ringleader.

Eleven California-based individuals have been indicted in connection with running a large-scale marriage fraud “agency” that allegedly arranged hundreds of sham marriages entered into for the primary purpose of circumventing immigration laws.

“Marriage fraud is a serious crime that threatens the integrity of our nation’s lawful immigration system,” said United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins in a press conference in Boston, residence of one of the victims of the alleged scam.

Rollins identified the group’s ringleader as Marcialito Biol Benitez, 48, a Filipino national who operated an employment agency in Los Angeles as a front for arranged sham marriages that charged $20,000 to $30,000 in cash per client, according to the Phillippine Daily Inquirer.

The following defendants were indicted today on conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and immigration document fraud:

• Marcialito Biol Benitez, a/k/a “Mars,” 48, a Philippine national residing in Los Angeles;
• Engilbert Ulan, a/k/a “Angel,” 39, a Philippine national residing in Los Angeles;
• Nino Reyes Valmeo, 45, a Philippine national residing in Los Angeles;
• Harold Poquita, 30, a Philippine national residing in Los Angeles;
• Juanita Pacson, 45, a Philippine national residing in Los Angeles;
• Felipe Capindo David, a/k/a “Pilipi” or “Peebles,” 49, a Philippine national residing in Los Angeles;
• Peterson Souza, 34, a Brazilian national residing in Anaheim, Calif.;
• Devon Hammer, 26, of Palmdale, Calif.;
• Tamia Duckett, 25, of Lancaster, Inglewood and Palmdale, Calif.;
• Karina Santos, 24, of Lancaster, Calif.; and
• Casey Loya, 33, of Lancaster and Palmdale, Calif.

Eight of the defendants, including Benitez, were arrested Thursday in California. They appeared in federal court in the Central District of California today and will appear in Boston at a later date.

According to the indictment, Benitez operated what he and others referred to as an “agency” that arranged hundreds of sham marriages between foreign national “clients” and United States citizens. One of those foreign national clients resided in Massachusetts. The agency then allegedly prepared and submitted false petitions, applications and other documents to substantiate the sham marriages and secure adjustment of clients’ immigration statuses for a fee of between $20,000 and $30,000 in cash.

“You do the math, they easily made 8 million dollars,” Rollins told the media.

“It is the utmost honor and privilege to become an American citizen, and the individuals we arrested today have allegedly made a sham of that process by running a large-scale marriage fraud 'agency' that arranged hundreds of fake marriages for foreign nationals, racking up millions of dollars in profits.," said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Office.

"We believe their alleged scheme broke immigration laws that are in place to protect public safety and created a disadvantage for those seeking to earn their citizenship lawfully'” 

Benitez allegedly operated the agency out of brick-and-mortar offices in Los Angeles, where he employed his co-conspirators as staff. Specifically, it is alleged that Valmeo, Ulan, Poquita and Pacson assisted with arranging marriages as well as submitting fraudulent marriage and immigration documents for the agency’s clients, including false tax returns.  

Hammer, Duckett, Santos and Loya allegedly served as “brokers,” who recruited U.S. citizens willing to marry the agency’s clients in exchange for an upfront fee and monthly payments from the client spouses following the marriage – to keep the U.S. citizen responsive and cooperative until the client spouse obtained lawful permanent resident status.  

It is also alleged that Souza and Capindo David referred prospective foreign national clients to the agency for a commission, typically around $2,000 per referral.

After pairing foreign national clients with citizen spouses, Benitez and his staff allegedly staged fake wedding ceremonies at chapels, parks and other locations, performed by hired online officiants. For many clients, the agency would take photos of undocumented clients and citizen spouses in front of prop wedding decorations for later submission with immigration petitions.

Benitez and his staff then allegedly submitted fraudulent, marriage-based immigration petitions to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the federal agency responsible for granting lawful permanent resident status. 

It is alleged that Benitez and his staff coached clients and spouses through interviews with USCIS and advised clients about maintaining the appearance of legitimate marriage to their spouses. According to the indictment Benitez and his co-conspirators arranged sham marriages and submitted fraudulent immigration documents for at least 400 clients between October 2016 and March 2022.

It is further alleged that Benitez and his co-conspirators would assist certain clients – typically those whose spouses became unresponsive or uncooperative – with obtaining green cards under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) by claiming the undocumented clients had been abused by alleged American spouses. 

Specifically, the agency would allegedly submit fraudulent applications on clients’ behalf for temporary restraining orders against spouses based on fabricated domestic violence allegations. Benitez and his co-conspirators would then allegedly submit the restraining order documentation along with immigration petitions to USCIS, in order to take advantage of VAWA provisions that permit non-citizen victims of spousal abuse to apply for lawful permanent resident status without their spouses’ involvement.

The charge of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. 

“These defendants’ alleged exploitation of this system for profit is an affront to our nation’s tradition of welcoming immigrants and prospective citizens," said Rollins in a statement. "Their alleged fraudulent behavior makes things harder for the vast majority of immigrants who follow the law and respect our immigration system. Beyond that, by allegedly submitting false applications that claimed domestic abuse, these charged defendants did further harm, this time to real victims and survivors of domestic violence." 

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Justice Department files lawsuit saying Texas' redistricting plan that discriminates against voters of color

SCREEN CAPTURE / MSNBC

Deputy Attorney General Vanita Gupta announces the DOJ lawsuit vs. Texas redistricting plan.

Texas' plan for redrawing Congressional district boundaries is being challenged by the Department of Justice in a lawsuit filed Monday that claims minority voters will be denied equal opportunity to seek representation in political offices.

"Texas’ 2021 redistricting plans were enacted through a rushed process, with minimal opportunity for public comment, without any expert testimony, and with an overall disregard for the massive minority population growth in Texas over the last decade," said U.S. Deputy Attorney General Vanita Gupta in a press conference.

Texas’ population grew by 4 million people from 2010 to 2020, and 95% of that growth came from minority populations. As a result of the population growth, the state gained two new Congressional seats, both of which were designed to give White voters a majority," said Gupta, one of the highest ranking Indian Americans in the Biden administration.

"Despite this significant increase in the number and proportion of eligible Latino and Black voters in Texas, the newly enacted redistricting plans will not allow minority voters an equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice," said Gupta. "Instead, our investigation determined that Texas’ redistricting plans will dilute the increased minority voting strength that should have developed from these significant demographic shifts."

The complaint asks the court to prohibit Texas from conducting elections under the challenged plans and asks the court to order Texas to devise and implement new redistricting plans that comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The complaint also asks the court to establish interim plans before the 2022 Midterm elections pending a lawful state redistricting, a process that could extend beyond the Midterms.

The DOJ suit is the second legal challenge to Texas attempt to minimize the impact of voters of color. The Fair Maps Texas Action Committee filed a legal challenge on behalf of a coalition of voting and civil-rights groups and individual voters, including the Asian American Legal and Education Fund (AALDEF).

The AANHPI population is the fastest-growing racial or ethnic voting group in the state, according to the Census. Over the past decade, AANHPI voters have increased from 950,000 in 2010 to nearly 1.6 million in 2020.

“Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are the fastest growing racial group in America and especially in Texas. Together with their Black and Latino neighbors, AAPIs have already demonstrated that they vote together. It is clear that these new legislative district lines were drawn to intentionally divide these rapidly growing AAPI communities and prevent them and other communities of color from electing candidates of their choice. This continues Texas' shameful history of discriminating against voters of color,” Jerry Vattamala, Director of the Democracy Program with AALDEF.

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, Texas has not gone a single decade without a federal court finding that the state had violated federal protections for voters of color. 

In 2021, Texas lawmakers’ voting plans for State House districts (H2316), State Senate districts (S2168), and Congressional districts (C2193), repeat the Legislature's past mistakes. The complaint alleges that each plan discriminates against voters of color by failing to create coalition districts mandated by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, intentionally dividing voters of color into several districts, and otherwise diluting the voting power of people of color. 

As the DOJ complaint documents, in areas like Fort Bend County, a diverse region near Houston, Texas, AAPI communities are cracked “with almost surgical precision,” depriving them of an equal opportunity to elect their candidates of choice.

In Congressional District 22 where a growing and active AAPI electorate lives in suburban Houston, an Indian American candidate, Sri Preston Kulkarni, almost defeated the Republican incumbent. Under the new map, the AAPI neighborhoods have been divided up into several districts or added to larger rural districts where White voters are the majority.

“These lines are essentially silencing” minority voters, Vattamala asserted.

“Surgically removing these communities and adding them with White, rural counties to essentially dilute their vote.”

“This brazen attack on the voting rights of people of color in Texas is a fundamental attack on democracy and violates the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution," said AALDEF's Vattamala. "All Texans should be appalled at these blatantly discriminatory district lines.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd.

DOJ translates hate crime info into 8 Asian languages

SHUTTERSTOCK

For the past year, there has been an alarming rise in violence, harassment, and discrimination directed at the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. 

"The recent rise in hate crime and hate incidents, particularly the disturbing trend in reports of violence against members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community since the start of the pandemic, requires renewed energy...," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a memo to all Justice Department staffers.

Marking the 40th Anniversary of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW), the Justice Department’s Hate Crimes Enforcement and Prevention Initiative announced on Friday, April 23, that it has translated hate crimes resources in eight languages for the department’s hate crimes website, www.justice.gov/hatecrimes.

The website, which has been visited by over one million users since launching in 2018, now features new pages in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog, Arabic, and Japanese. 

These pages include basic information about hate crimes, in-language resources, and instructions on reporting hate crimes to the FBI Tip Line with assistance from qualified interpreters. Experience has proven that communicating in-language with people who are limited English proficient (LEP) is a crucial step to combating hate crimes nationally.

The new in-language pages can help victims and witnesses who are limited English proficient recognize and report hate crimes. The website also has a new English language page with links to resources and news addressing hate targeting AAPI communities. 

The page includes a link to the FBI’s Hate Crime Threat Guide. The Threat Guide, a single-page chart describing types of hate crime threats (physical, verbal, phoned, electronic, written, or visual), lists recommended responses, including steps to preserve evidence. The Guide is now available in Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

“Supporting victims of hate crimes is an essential part of the department’s mission, and an important measure of our success,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Pamela Karlan of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “People with limited English proficiency, and the advocates and community leaders who work with them, face additional barriers to seeking justice. 

"We hope that these new in-language resources help the department and our partners more effectively support victims of hate crimes, build trust, and engage communities. We will continue to expand the number of languages on www.justice.gov/hatecrimes.”

The announcements are just one part of the department’s work to combat discrimination and violence through capacity building, training, support and outreach to our partners, including those that work with AAPI communities or members of the public who have limited English proficiency.

On Jan. 26, President Biden issued the “Presidential Memorandum Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States,” which mandates that the Attorney General shall:

• explore opportunities to support, consistent with applicable law, the efforts of state and local agencies, as well as AAPI communities and community-based organizations, to prevent discrimination, bullying, harassment, and hate crimes against AAPI individuals, and
• expand collection of data and public reporting regarding hate incidents against such individuals.

For more information on the Justice Department’s work to combat and prevent hate crimes, visit www.justice.gov/hatecrimes, a one-stop portal with links to hate crimes resources for law enforcement, media, researchers, victims, advocacy groups, and other organizations and individuals.

Garland said the DOJ review would examine the federal government's capacity to track and identify hate incidents; weigh the use of civil enforcement authority to respond to incidents of bias that do not rise to actual hate crimes; and assess whether additional money is needed to support law enforcement's response.

"We must re-commit ourselves to this urgent task and ensure that the department makes the best and most effective use of its resources to combat hate," Garland  wrote.

Embattled Vanita Gupta approved as Associate Attorney General for DOJ

Vanita Gupta is the new Associate Attorney Genereal.

One Republican Senator bucked her GOP colleagues and just like that, Vanita Gupta's appointment was approved to become the Associate Attorney General of the Department of Justice.

Alaska's Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the lone Republican to vote for the Indian American civil rights attorney

Gupta becomes the first woman of color and the first Asian American to hold the third-in-command for the Justice Department.

“Not only is Ms. Gupta the first woman of color to ever be nominated to the position, she is the first civil rights attorney ever to be nominated to the position — the third-ranking official in the Justice Department,” said Senate  Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY.

Vice President Kamala Harris was present in case her vote was needed to break a tie between the GOP and Democrats. 

As soon as Gupta was nominated, conservative groups and Senate Republicans have been attacking her as a "radical" in attempt to derail Biden's nomination, even though all the major law enforcement groups endorsed Gupta.

Gupta previously was the head of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division during the Obama administration. 

But Murkowski, who voted to convict Donald Trump in the former president's second impeachment trial, voted for the embattled Gupta.

According to Politico, among the issues Murkowski discussed with Gupta was domestic violence and sexual assault, particularly against Native women — a major priority for the Alaska Republican.

“I felt that I was speaking to a woman who had not only committed her professional life to try to get the base of these injustices, to try to not just direct a little bit of money, put a program in place, and walk away and call it a day,” Murkowski told Politico. “But to try to truly make a difference.”

Rep. Judy Chu, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said:
"Her confirmation could not come at a more significant time as our nation continues to grapple with a multitude of civil rights issues – from police brutality targeting Black and Brown communities to the surge in anti-Asian hate crimes we have seen throughout the pandemic. 

"We need a Department of Justice that understands the needs and experiences of communities of color and works to protect them from violence and disenfranchisement," said Chu.

White House holds a roundtable on the rise of #AAPIHate

Hundreds attended a recent rally in New York City.

What a difference a few months can make. In December 2020 all we were hearing about were the racially offensive terms for the coronavirus from the Trump White House. On March 4, 2021 we have the Biden White House actually "listening" about the rapid surge of hate directed at Asian Americans.

On Thursday (March 4), Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice, White House Public Engagement Director Cedric Richmond, Acting Director of the White House Initiative on AAPIs Laura Shin, and Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President Rohini Kosoglu hosted a virtual roundtable listening session with Asian American and Pacific Islander advocates and community leaders from across the country to discuss the increasing rates of anti-Asian harassment and violence. 

“No one in America should fear violence because of who they are, what they look like or what part of the world they or their families came from,” said Acting Deputy Attorney General John Carlin. “The Department of Justice and our component agencies are committed to bringing all of our tools to bear in supporting AAPI communities as we address the horrific rise in hate and bias incidents occurring across the country.”

The roundtable comes amid an alarming spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, a rise that was exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in China

Participants shared their perspectives on the climate of fear that Asian American communities are facing. They also shared the important work they are doing across the country, recommendations for preventing and addressing violence against Asian American communities, and highlighted the coalition building that is happening across communities.

Rice and Rep. Richmond expressed gratitude for the participants’ courageous leadership in addressing acts of violence and bias against Asian American communities. 

They reiterated President Biden’s commitment to ending anti-Asian violence and bias, and confronting the role that some federal leaders played during the COVID-19 pandemic in promoting unfounded fear and bias against Asian American communities. 

Ambassador Rice and Congressman Richmond also underscored that the President has made it the policy of his Administration to condemn and combat xenophobia against Asian Americans. 

Biden has also made the issue a priority, ordering the DOJ in January to “explore opportunities to support, consistent with applicable law, the efforts of State and local agencies, as well as AAPI communities and community-based organizations, to prevent discrimination, bullying, harassment, and hate crimes against AAPI individuals.”

Cynthia Choi of Chinese for Affirmative Action used data from #StopAAPIHate to show that in the year since the pandemic has gripped the nation, almost 3,000 incidents of verbal and physical attacks, harassment and bullying have occurred against Asian Americans.

In his Presidential Memorandum Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States, Biden charged the DOJ with partnering with Asian American communities to prevent and better collect data on hate crimes against Asian American communities. The President also directed Federal agencies to ensure their official actions mitigate anti-Asian bias.

Among other things, the DOJ plans to make clear that this issue is among the department's highest priority, engage in increased outreach, and dedicate resources to combat the threat. 

DOJ is taking a fresh look at ways of reinvigorating the Department’s Hate Crimes Enforcement and Prevention Initiative, to identify how we can best expand data collection and reporting regarding hate incidents against AAPI persons. On that front, the DOJ plans to:

• Launch a new community outreach and engagement program designed to improve identifying, reporting, and preventing hate crimes and build trust with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement;
• Translate the DOJ hate crimes resources website and complaint portal to the 4 most common AAPI languages, beginning with Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) and conduct outreach to reach those limited English proficient communities;
• Work with state victims’ programs to help them address hate crimes;
• Establish a new grant program to help states, localities, and tribal law enforcement agencies to conduct educational outreach and training on hate crimes and to investigate and prosecute hate crimes;
• Launch a new Hate Crimes program under the Matthew Shepard/James Byrd Hate Crimes Program to support funds and training and technical assistance to support outreach, education, reporting, investigation and prosecution of hate crimes; and
• Review how the department collects and uses hate crime data and statistics.

The U.S. Department of Justice's John Carlin took part in the White House roundtable.

“I want to be clear here: No one in America should fear violence because of who they are, or what they believe,” said the DOJ's Carlin.

“We will not tolerate any form of domestic terrorism or hate-based violent extremism, and we are committed to putting a stop to it.”

Organizations that took part on the March 4 White House roundtable, included:

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice: John Yang
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus: Aarti Kohli
• Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum: Juliet Choi
• Asian American Federation: Jo-Ann Yoo
• Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations: Jeff Caballero
• Asian American Journalists Association: Naomi Tacuyan Underwood
• AAPI Civic Engagement Fund: EunSook Lee
• Chinese for Affirmative Action: Cynthia Choi
• Coalition of Asian American Leaders: Bo Thao-Urabe
• Empowering Pacific Islander Communities: Tavae Samuelu
• National Asian Pacific American Bar Association: Priya Purandare
• National Council on Asian Pacific Americans: Gregg Orton
• OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates: Thu Nguyen
• Sikh American Legal Defense & Educational Fund: Kiran Gill
• South Asian Americans Leading Together: Mahnoor Hussain
• Southeast Asian Research Action Center: Quyen Dinh