A top federal Department of Homeland Security investigator stands trial today on felony charges that he helped his illegal immigrant girlfriend live in the United States unlawfully.

The case against Lloyd Miner, an internal affairs chief for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, stems from the high-profile investigation into former Homeland Security supervisor Robert Schofield, the immigration official who pleaded guilty to accepting hundreds of thousands in cash bribes in exchange for creating phony visas, green cards and citizenship documents. Authorities said Miner knew that his girlfriend, Tsomorlig Batjargal, a native of Mongolia, was an illegal immigration and helped to obtain fake identifications to hide her immigration status. Miner, 49, faces a maximum of 25 years in prison. He has been on unpaid leave since December 2006.