INS AGENT CONVICTED OF IMMIGRANT SMUGGLING

An INS agent who was part of the anti-smuggling squad in Los Angeles has been convicted of immigrant smuggling.  Jesse Jerry Gardona, a 12-year veteran of the INS, was found guilty of removing some of the immigrants he arrested from custody and charging a fee to release them to their families.  The fee was 0 a person.

Gardona was popular with his co-workers, and respected by many immigration attorneys, and many wonder why he got involved in smuggling.  The money involved was so small that that is an unlikely reason.  It also seems unlikely that the reason was, as Gardona argued in court, that he was trying to help the people he arrested avoid deportation.  The investigations into Gardona’s activities show that he gradually became corrupt, first by providing information to smugglers, and ending up ransoming people he arrested.

Through his work with the INS, Gardona knew two men, neither of whom had legal status in the US.  One of the men provided information to Gardona on drop houses where smuggled immigrants were being held, in exchange for which Gardona ignored his obvious use of undocumented workers.  This man introduced him to another person who was at the head of a drug distribution ring.  The second man provided Gardona with a ,000 loan to fund businesses that he was running on the side.

These businesses did not do well, and Gardona had to come up with a way to pay his debt.  It seems that this is when he began removed immigrants from INS custody.  Gardona took the immigrants to the drug dealer who paid him 0 for each person.  The drug dealer then ransomed them to family members.  Those who were not ransomed were put to work for the man who introduced Gardona to the drug dealer.

The scheme came to light after the informant was apprehended trying to reenter the US.  He told agents that he was an informant for Gardona.  The US Attorney prosecuting him told the FBI of his associations with Gardona, which began an investigation.

It remains to be determined whether other agents in the Los Angeles INS office knew of Gardona’s corruption.  It also remains to be seen how the INS will deal with past and pending cases in which Gardona was an investigating agent and whether it will investigate whether there is more corruption in the Los Angeles office.