Oh..you mean like this?
Ex-Official at Agency Guilty of Harboring Illegal Resident
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 19, 2007; B08
A former top official for the federal agency that processes immigration applications, whose job was to ferret out corruption at his office, was convicted yesterday of harboring an illegal immigrant at his Centreville home.
A federal jury in Alexandria convicted Lloyd W. Miner of allowing the woman to live with him, paying her expenses and providing her with perks, including a black convertible with Fraternal Order of Police license plates personalized with her name. Miner was dating the immigrant, a Mongolian woman who was also convicted yesterday of immigration fraud.
When federal agents began investigating Miner last year, his title was deputy assistant chief of internal affairs at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is responsible for granting citizenship, green cards and other immigration benefits. His job was to investigate allegations of corruption and to perform security checks on employees. Miner joined the agency, part of what was formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service, in 1987.
Chris Bentley, a spokesman for Immigration Services, said yesterday that Miner, 49, has been fired and that the case "is an isolated event that in no way reflects the professional demeanor and the manner in which our 16,000 employees approach their jobs every day."
Miner's prosecution grew out of another case involving a top official at the agency. Robert T. Schofield, a supervisor, pleaded guilty last year to accepting more than $600,000 in bribes in exchange for falsifying immigration documents to help Asians obtain U.S. citizenship.
When federal agents searched Schofield's house last year, they found a photograph of him with a woman he had gone to meet in Southeast Asia. In the background was Miner, who had gone on the trip with Schofield, according to testimony at Miner's trial. Agents recognized Miner and began investigating him.
Schofield, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence, testified at Miner's two-day trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. After deliberating for about 4 1/2 hours, the 12-member jury convicted Miner of one count of harboring an illegal alien and one count of encouraging and inducing an illegal alien to reside in the United States. He was acquitted of helping the woman obtain a false identity document. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison at his sentencing March 7.
"Of course, there is irony when you catch the guy who is supposed to be enforcing the law breaking the law himself," said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors tough enforcement of immigration laws.
Mehlman said he found no deeper meaning in the case. "It just shows that nobody is exempt from the human foibles that sooner or later trip up most of us," Mehlman said.
Miner's attorney, John Gullette, said he was surprised by the verdict.. "He just thought she was just a student and had visa problems, but he had no idea he was committing a crime by allowing this girl he fell in love with to live with him," Gullette said.
The woman, Tsomorlig Batjargal, 21, was convicted of immigration fraud for obtaining a driver's license in Washington state when Virginia would not renew hers because she was not a legal resident. Prosecutors said she came to the United States legally but overstayed her student visa starting in 2004. She and Miner met at a social club in the District.
Prosecutors said Miner, who is divorcing his wife, got Batjargal a gym membership and paid other expenses, according to trial testimony. He was acquitted of helping her obtain a driver's license in Washington state.
Gullette said Miner and Batjargal are engaged, but the relationship might end if she is deported.
