Transcription
Today in Louisiana, four former and current local law enforcement officers, including police chiefs, were federally charged in what prosecutors are describing as a decades-long immigration visa scheme. Investigators alleged that these very officers committed conspiracy, immigration fraud, bribery, mail fraud, and money laundering. According to the 62-count indictment that was unsealed this morning, the FBI and Homeland Security carried out the arrests and search warrants across the state yesterday. NBC News correspondent Priscilla Thompson joins us with the details.
Uh Priscilla, when you're dealing with people who are seeking immigration, you're generally dealing with a pretty vulnerable population, people who are less likely to speak out when they feel something is wrong or may not feel like they have the resources to get help. So, how did this even get on prosecutors' radar in the first place?
Yeah. So, we know that prosecutors at some point started to notice an outsized number of armed robberies that were being reported. And what they found is this conspiracy that centers on these U visas. So, these are visas, non-immigrant visas for people who witness or are victims of a violent crime and who are helping law enforcement. And so the person at the center of this all is allegedly a Subway owner and operator, Shandra Patel, who allegedly would collect payments from these foreign nationals and then pay these police chiefs, former police chiefs, and officers to draft up documentation to show that those nationals were victims of crime. So, fake police reports, things like that. And these were police officers from across the state. You had Chad Doyle with the Oakdale, the Oakdale police chief. Michael Faney, the Oakdale city marshal. Glenn Dixon, the Forest Hill police chief, and also Tibo Onisha, the former police chief of Glen Mora. So, all of these officers in this indictment.
Boy, boy. So, we got to talk about a massive federal law enforcement bust that has resulted in the arrest and the charging of five individuals in Louisiana, including three current/former police chiefs, a marshal, and a local businessman, an Indian businessman who owns a Subway, who were indicted for orchestrating a scheme where they file false police reports accusing immigrants of being victims of armed robberies. Now, these fabricated incidents allow those immigrants to fraudulently qualify for U visas, which are meant for victims who assist law enforcement.
Now, uh, the U visa was created with good intentions, but like a lot of programs created with good intentions by the government, you have people out there that are going to try to take advantage of it. And apparently, the way that this fraudulent um scam worked is that what will happen is that you would have these immigrants, uh, these foreign nationals who would want to stay in the United States of America, and they need a visa in order to do so. In order to get a visa, uh, one of the types of visas that you can get is what they call a U visa. Now, again, a U visa was created, uh, to help law enforcement fight crime against illegal im-immigrants, right? People who are here illegally, right? Or undocumented, whatever you want to call them. It was intended to help them fight crime, right? So that those victims would come forward and to give police the information that they need in order to go after the perpetrator.
Now, the problem is that this has now been taken advantage of because what you have is a system where these immigrants are falsely claiming to be victims of robberies, theft, or whatever, in an attempt to try to get a U visa, which would allow them to stay in the country, uh, legally for, uh, a few more years. And in this story that we got to talk about here today, you had these law enforcement officials that were participating in this scam because they were being paid to create the false police reports documenting these fake robberies that helped these migrants, uh, obtain U visas, right? So that they could stay longer in the United States of America. They were being paid in exchange for their cooperation. And that's kind of how it worked. And now these individuals have been charged and arrested by, uh, the FBI.
Take a look. Multiple police officials and a businessman were arrested, accused of running an immigration fraud scheme. Investigators say that scheme led to hundreds of foreign nationals illegally getting visas. News Alexis Marin breaks down how this case is unfolding. Investigators say they don't want the public's trust to waver. Instead, they say the arrests should show their dedication to statewide transparency. Last summer, investigators started tracking what seemed like a high number of armed robberies. I've never seen anything quite like this. Many of the victims listed were not from Louisiana. In fact, the armed robberies never took place, and those listed in the applications were never victims of crime. According to arrest documents, for 10 years, false police reports were being made by this group of police officials: Oakdale Police Chief Chad Doyle, Marshal Mike Slanny, Forest Hill Police Chief Glenn Dixon, and former Glen Mora Police Chief Tibo Onicia.
"99.9% of law enforcement is good. We do a great job. We go to work every day. We get up, we do what we're supposed to do, uh, for whatever reason, uh, the lure of money or whatever it is that, uh, leads them to do the wrong thing, you know, uh, don't do it."
The fake reports were used by foreign nationals to apply for U visas, a type of visa reserved for victims of crimes. In this case, crimes that never happened. False visas can facilitate illegal activities in the United States, including financial crime, crimes of violence, narcotics, human trafficking, etc. The indictment says the owner of a Subway in Oakdale, Shandra Patel, paid the officers $5,000 for each false report.
"We expect law enforcement officers to protect the public and to honor their trust, not to sell that trust and the honor of their badges for personal gain."
After collecting years of evidence, investigators made two arrests at the Crown Plaza Hotel while they were attending a police chief's conference. The group is facing dozens of counts, including mail fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit visa fraud. And more charges are possible. Court dates for the individuals have not been set just yet, but I'm being told court appearances will happen in Alexandria. In the newsroom, Alexis Mariny, WBRZ News 2.
Yeah. So, I want to get a little bit deeper into this because one of my contacts in law enforcement, uh, was warning me about the U visa scam for a while now, and he gave me some more context in regards to the problems with U visas and how he believes that this is a widespread thing. So, without further ado, let's go ahead and, uh, play this clip from NewsNation and their coverage of this story.
Scam involving law enforcement and illegal migrants been going on for nearly a decade. Most are just hearing about it right now. Why? FBI investigation in Louisiana. They say chiefs accepted bribes for claiming hundreds of illegal migrants were victims of armed robberies, but the robberies never happened. Why would they do that? Because being a victim of a serious felony like that qualifies migrants for a U visa and allows them to stay. Retired Homeland Security investigator Victor Aila has heard of this, and former FBI supervisory special agent James Galliano. Jimmy understands why this matters and what has to be done about it. Gentlemen, thank you. So, Victor, you've heard of this, uh, before. You've dealt in this area of trafficking a lot, and you say that's the sweet spot where you have to examine how this type of fraud happens in trafficking because that's such a big part of movement of people in and out of this country illegally. Why? Because it's a loophole that they've been using. And I, this U visa scam has been going on for a long time. I saw it firsthand many, many years. I used to, uh, issue these U visas for victims, uh, when they were human trafficking victims. Got him a T visa, which is a little bit harder to prove and harder to attain, but the U visa became this kind of a loophole where if you couldn't get any other kind of visa, well, maybe you were a victim of a crime, whether family violence, a rape, or something like that. By the way, most of the recipients of U visas are females, um, but of there's males as well, but mostly females. And, uh, you have a lot of these groups, ACLU, other non-governmental organizations, kind of helping these people. And I remember being in El Paso, Texas, investigating these cases and thinking, are all these people actually, you know, were a victim of a crime? And if so, exactly what happened? In Louisiana, where's the police report? Because that's, that would help them prove if the crime happened in the United States when they claimed that it happened in a home country where they even, even harder to prove and get documentation. And then this whole scam, by the way, Texas has been looking at this for a while. Uh, I just talked to a news organization here in Texas. Uh, it is getting out of hand, and I think you have to go back and review the issuance of these U visas because what we want is the actual victim to get the visa, not these scammers. And I'm very disappointed, obviously, with the law enforcement involved here.
Well, I would honestly say that I'm not even sure we want the visa to exist at all, uh, because of how easy it seems to be to take advantage of it. Now, the law enforcement official that I've been talking to about this, who has been warning me about this, basically told me that he has experience, uh, working with these cases, and that basically, uh, it's difficult for the officers, uh, the police involved, because you have these people who claim that they're the victim of crimes. And even though, uh, an officer may get the case, and they can clearly see that this is likely made up or that there's no, you know, real evidence behind this, or that maybe, just maybe, they actually have video footage showing that it didn't happen. The problem is is that you would have immigration attorneys try to get in contact with the supervisor, uh, for the officer, and then try to file a complaint, right? And, and to complain. And police officers generally speaking don't want complaints on their record, uh, especially without context, uh, because of how it looks, right? So, it's one of those situations where, um, what he was telling me was that you have immigration attorneys. They're a part of the problem, right? They're the ones that are pushing their clients to go and get these U visas or to find a way to get these U visas, and, uh, they're probably making money off of it, right? So, it really starts with immigration attorneys who probably tell their clients, hey, you know, this is a visa that you could get, uh, if somehow, someway, you become a victim of a crime. Again, um, you know, this is just a part of the system, right? And take advantage of the system. And then, you know, where you have these illegals that go and they try to, uh, file these police reports in order to get the U visa. If the officer is skeptical of the story, again, the immigration attorney steps in, and they try to intimidate the officers. They try to, uh, go to their supervisors and stuff like that, uh, in order to get what they want, right? So, uh, there's a whole system behind this. There's a whole lot of money behind this. Ultimately, officers have to sign off on the form that is needed, uh, in order to get a U visa. And if they don't do it, then they could potentially face consequences, again, like civil rights complaints, uh, which, you know, again, in the time that we're living in, right, as a police officer, you definitely don't want that. But again, you have some who are taking advantage of this in order to make money, right? They just aren't being intimidated into, uh, helping these illegals, uh, get these U visas via these, uh, false crime reports, but some of them are just actively participating in generating the false crime reports and going along with it for money.
Okay. Uh, there are reports that some of these guys were paid like $5,000 per illegal that they helped, which again is a lot, right? That's a lot of money. And over years, uh, yeah, they, they were racking up off of this. But again, this is a widespread issue. It's a big issue, uh, that's not just isolated to Louisiana.
"Gags, obviously the temptation is to say, 'Oh, they must all be doing this. Cops are dirty. They're on the take.' But you say if you look at how, uh, the DOJ approached this, there is an understanding that this is pretty limited in their context."
Yeah. For this case. But again, to pretend as if this isn't a widespread issue, like this doesn't happen all over the country, I think would be not honest, right? It wouldn't be truthful.
Chris, completely disheartening for law enforcement folks like me to, to, to hear of something like this. Not only were these bad police officers, they were in senior level positions. And look, make no doubt about it, the charges that the acting U.S. Attorney made or brought down, they are hefty. Mail fraud, you're looking at potentially 20 years. Visa fraud, you're looking at potentially 10 years. Those could be served concurrently. And then, you know how the feds are, Chris, we always throw in the conspiracy because where two or more are gathered, they're in agreement, there's an intention to do something like commit fraud against the United States. And then lastly, an overt act is committed. Chris, I guarantee you at least one of these guys is going to be singing. But I am heartened that the acting U.S. Attorney did state that this was not indicative of a problem within the police departments. This was a select few amount of people. Select few bad apples.
Aila, let's put up that picture again. How'd the Subway dude get caught up in this? Everybody's a chief or a sheriff. How'd they get the Subway dude Patel in here? Money laundering. Money laundering. You think of any business, you, if you think about it, the cartels and these criminal organizations have used sandwich shops and car dealerships, and you, if you can imagine it, they've used it to launder their money. I, I have a feeling Subway got caught in all this. Uh, but remember, the U visa, I want to make something clear. The U visa is an immigration benefit that benefits an actual victim that has been, uh, victimized, and, and merits to stay here in the U.S. because the U visa brings very, very good benefits and a possible path to a green card and maybe citizenship. That's why it's being exploited. That's why these guys made a bunch of money. And I can't believe that they doctored the actual crimes to make them qualify for these, uh, uh, uh, benefits. It's unfortunate.
I agree here. It's, it's a black eye for the, uh, law enforcement community every time we see something like this. Yeah. And that's why it needs to be done away with altogether, right? Uh, no, you don't get the right to stay in this country because you were a victim of a crime, right? If you didn't come in illegally, then you would have been a victim of a crime, not in this country in the first place, right? You would not have been a victim of a crime in this country if you didn't come here illegally. Okay? Coming here illegally and knowing that, okay, well, if I'm the victim of a crime, then I might be able to stay. That's just one more incentive for people to come, right? That's just a loophole in the system. So, get rid of it all together. And hey, there is no more incentive for people to come here, right? And try to get these crimes committed against them or to put themselves in situations where crimes are committed against them. Uh, or being able to take advantage of the system like, you know, this Indian guy did. He probably was getting all his, his Indian friends these U visas, right? And everybody, and all the Indians getting in on this, right? So, yeah, I think you should just eliminate it all together. I don't think being a victim of a crime, uh, should give you the opportunity to stay here. Uh, if you get rid of it, then you ain't got to worry about it. You ain't got to worry about it because again, this system, uh, seems to be very, very, very easy to dupe. Uh, and again, like I've outlined, uh, you know, the immigration attorneys are probably in on it, right? And again, they try to intimidate the officers into going along with it. And the officers are put into bad situations, uh, very tough spots because they don't want to see receive complaints. They don't want to be accused of racism or discrimination for not going along with what they believe could be a fraudulent scheme.
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