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IMMIGRATION LAWYER INDICTED FOR ROLE IN CHINESE SMUGGLING RING
A New York lawyer who ran one of the nation’s biggest immigration law firms with a focus on asylum was charged last week with assisting Chinese smugglers bring people into the US illegally.  According to prosecutors, Robert Porges made more than $13 million over the last seven years.  Porges, his wife, the firm’s office manager and four paralegals have been charged with fraud.

According to prosecutors, the firm advised smugglers on how to avoid detection, and had an arrangement with smugglers to represent smuggled aliens if they were discovered.  It would create fraudulent asylum applications for the aliens.  Once the alien obtained asylum, the firm would return them to the smugglers who would hold them until the smuggling fee, often as high as $50,000 was paid.  It is not known how many grants of asylum were thus obtained, but the INS will review as many as 7,000 application filed by the firm.

Officials are pointing to this case as a demonstration of the growing sophistication of smuggling rings.  Porges could face up to 175 years in prison, and fines in the millions of dollars.  While he was a graduate of the Harvard Law School, he was not a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.  All of those involved have pled not guilty. 
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