In Miami, immigration lawyer Javier Lopera was sentenced to eight years in prison and faces deportation afterward for his role in operating a visa mill which may have provided as many as 3,500 persons with false papers qualifying them to enter the country as religious ministers or business executives. In another major fraud case, “Virginia lawyer Samuel Kooritzky was sentenced in March to 10 years in prison for crimes involving 2,700 applications submitted in 18 months.” (Catherine Wilson, “Probe of immigration lawyer balloons into massive visa fraud case”, AP/Atlanta Journal Constitution, Aug. 29). Last year Harvard Law-educated Robert Porges, who once ran the country’s largest political asylum practice, and his wife pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering, conspiracy and tax fraud and were sentenced to about eight years in prison for their role in filing 6,000 or more false asylum applications as well as false affidavits (see Sept. 22, 2000; Matt Hayes, “Corrupt Lawyers Aid Immigration Woes”, Fox News, Apr. 29, 2002; “Lawyer, wife admit Chinese smuggling scheme”, AP/Court TV, 2002; Elizabeth Amon, “The Snakehead Lawyers”, National Law Journal, Jul. 17, 2002).
