June 27, 2008, - 2:18 pm
The Obligatory “ICE Lawyer Took Bribes” Post
By Debbie Schlussel
Since I write a lot about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on this site, because so many ICE (and DHS) personnel are among my readers, and because most of my readers care about the illegal alien problem, lots of people are sending me the article about the ICE attorney in Los Angeles and his wife, who took bribes from aliens to file false employment petitions for 47 aliens.
I know some ICE attorneys, whose job often involves preparing cases for trial in order to deport and oppose asylum requests for some very bad people who won’t leave. The attorneys I know do a thankless job and they do it well because they are patriots. For the most part, they are honest people and skilled litigators, who make a fraction of what they’d make on the open market as immigration lawyers or defense attorneys. And their work helps keep us safe.
Often, when they win at the trial level in immigration court, the Justice Department and U.S. Attorneys’ offices screw it up on the appeals level. I wish many of these ICE lawyers were U.S. Attorneys. Then, things would get done.
Then, there is Peter Kallas, the man who took bribes to commit immigration fraud as an ICE attorney. His case is evidence that anyone in ICE can be vulnerable to bribes. That includes Roy Bailey, who was ICE’s Field Office Director–in charge of deporting illegal aliens–in Detroit for several years. He took bribes from Hezbollah’s key U.S. financier, Talal Chahine.
So, while the Kallas arrest is not exemplary of ICE’s other attorneys (except maybe the incompetent chick at the top), it is exemplary of the low morale at ICE. Although there is no excuse to sell out our country and its national security, the fact is that ICE employees are increasingly vulnerable–not because of salary, but because they are fed up with their agencies non-leadership and refusal to actually crack down on illegal aliens in our midst. And the responsibility for that falls with the rotting head at the top of the fish, blackface originality expert, Julie L. Myers a/k/a “The ICE Princess”:
An attorney for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and his wife were arrested on suspicion of accepting thousands of dollars from both legal and illegal immigrants in exchange for immigration benefits, authorities said.
ICE Assistant Chief Counsel Constantine Peter Kallas, 38, and wife Maria Kallas, 39, both of Alta Loma, were arrested Thursday at the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino, where authorities believed they were accepting such a bribe, U.S. Attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek said in a statement.
A search warrant affidavit said the couple, using a pair of companies they had set up, filed false employment petitions with federal authorities for 45 illegal immigrants and two legal permanent residents.
“The egregious acts of corruption alleged in this case are extremely disturbing to those of us who have sworn to serve the United States,” U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien said in a written statement. “As a law enforcement official, Mr. Kallas abused his position in the Department of Homeland Security simply to line his own pockets.”
The search warrant affidavit said about $950,000 beyond Constantine Kallas’ salary had been deposited in the pair’s bank accounts since 2000.
The couple was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy, bribery, making false statements and making a false statement in an immigration application. . . .
Kallas has worked for ICE since 1998, but had been on unpaid leave since January, 2007.
I’d like to know the identities and nationalities of the individuals he helped. Who are they, and where did they come from?
debbie that latest picture of julie myers i saw on the internet looks like she aged 10 years .is this because of you harrassing her for the great job she does ,yeah right, you need to update your photo the one on the internet with her hair dyed the wrong color and on the winkles on her forehead
PNAMARBLE on June 27, 2008 at 8:03 pm