The probe into a former Department of Homeland Security executive’s visas-for-bribes ring has expanded to include a top immigration investigator, a law enforcement source told The Examiner.
Robert Schofield, 57, a former deputy field director in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has already pleaded guilty to accepting cash from and having sex with Asian immigrants in exchange for phony visas, green cards and citizenships.
Authorities following up on the Schofield investigation are now focusing on Lloyd Miner, a veteran of the immigration service and one of the top internal investigators in CIS, a law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity said. Miner, 48, was placed on administrative leave in November and federal agents searched his office in mid-December, the source said.
Schofield’s 2006 arrest was a black eye to the immigration service. He had been the subject of corruption allegations for years and had been disciplined for his relations with Asian women — including a relationship with a prostitute that derailed a federal investigation of a Chinese gangster — yet survived to become a high-ranking visa official.
Miner became a subject of the Schofield investigation after authorities obtained a videotape that showed him and Schofield together at a party in the Philippines, the source said.
No one other than Schofield and one of his admitted brokers has been disciplined or charged with a crime. Miner has told associates he is innocent of any wrongdoing.
The Democrats have promised to overhaul the nation’s immigration service in the new year. But many in Congress — from U.S. Rep. Chris van Hollen, D-Md., to U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa — have raised questions about the competency of the immigration bureaucracy.
CIS spokesman Christopher S. Bentley refused to comment on the Schofield investigation Friday. But he said that protecting the integrity of the system “is paramount” to his agency.
“Allegations of criminal wrongdoing are made against a small percentage of U.S. CIS employees,” Bentley wrote in an e-mail to The Examiner. “The overwhelming majority of our employees conduct their professional duties with great integrity and a deep commitment to public service.”
Anyone with information on the immigration system can call 202-459-4956.
