NYC prosecutors: Bogus Ga. immigration lawyer’s advice so bad it led to deportation cases

By AP
Thursday, October 15, 2009

NYC DA: Bogus Ga. lawyer left immigrants worse off

NEW YORK — A convicted bigamist posing as a veteran immigration lawyer scammed thousands of dollars from Guyanese immigrants and gave them advice so bad they now face deportation, prosecutors said Thursday.

Wilmer Rivera Melendez promised green cards but pursued avenues that would never yield them, changed his phone number to evade his “clients” when they started asking questions and even startled some by proposing they marry him in order to get legal residency, prosecutors said.

Melendez, 60, denied the allegations, which add to a series of far-flung and colorful brushes with the law. Records show he was imprisoned for bigamy in Georgia; prosecutors said he also was convicted in an office burglary in the U.S. Virgin Islands and broke out of an Ohio jail through a ceiling hole in 1971.

Although the charges in Melendez’s latest case are limited to New York, prosecutors said he set up a scheme that stretched from his home in Covington, Ga., to several states.

“He just messed me up,” said Derick Darnley, a 37-year-old Guyanese boat-maintenance worker who said he asked Melendez to get a valid visa extended and ended up with a potential deportation case — after spending about $1,800.

Claiming to be a lawyer with 20 years of immigration-related experience in federal agencies, the Puerto Rico-born Melendez promised to get green cards for at least 14 Guyanese immigrants in Brooklyn, prosecutors said.

They and others paid at least $75,000 for misguided efforts that ended up spurring deportation proceedings for some, according to prosecutors and immigration lawyer Sheldon Zelig, who alerted prosecutors to the cases. Prosecutors said many of the immigrants were in the country illegally, but immigration authorities didn’t know until Melendez started filing paperwork for them.

Darnley said he came to the U.S. in 2008 on a monthlong work visa for a charter-yacht job. It fell through, so he sought to get the visa extended for six months to find another job.

Melendez said he’d arrange it but then steered him into applying for the unlikely prospect of asylum — designed for people fleeing persecution — and set off a process that may end in deportation, Darnley said.

“I thought I was doing the right thing because I don’t want to be here illegally,” said Darnley, who is from Guyana’s southeastern Berbice region. “I just feel very betrayed.”

For some New York “clients,” Melendez had another solution, prosecutors said: a green-card marriage to him. None accepted — in fact, “they were disgusted,” assistant district attorney Benjamin Cheeks said.

Melendez was being held on $175,000 bail after pleading not guilty to charges including grand larceny, scheme to defraud and falsely appearing as an attorney.

Defense lawyer Russell Paisley said Melendez never claimed to be an attorney but simply helped people with immigration papers.

“He did not promise them anything,” Paisley said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement had no immediate information Thursday on the status of any of the people Melendez is alleged to have victimized.

Manhattan prosecutors said they found Melendez had other “clients” in California, Florida, Georgia, Maryland and North Carolina. It wasn’t immediately clear whether authorities planned to pursue cases there.

Melendez was released from prison in 2006 after serving nearly two years for bigamy, Georgia Department of Corrections records show. He was married to at least three women at once, Cheeks said.

The top charges against Melendez carry up to four years in prison.

Associated Press researcher Susan James contributed to this report.

Discussion

Brittancus
October 15, 2009: 9:08 pm

E-Verify should be on the national agenda to countermand any illegal alien infiltration into the working environment. Whatever needs to done should take priority to remove the unauthorized labor in our jobless nation. More funding, more modifications until the illegal immigrant fraudulent use of documentation becomes a thing of the past. Using whatever technical programming that is available, to make it’s operation inadvisable? Any database including state criminal, FBI, Social Security, Homeland Security, and any other means possible. Ultimately the final version would contribute photo verification, national ID system with biometric data which has been recommended by the Brooking’s Institute and Duke University MIT. Supposedly small employers who don’t operate computers should have common access in such locations as Post Offices or other approachable government building to identify the workers they are hiring.

There should be no excuse to not install a nationwide mandatory system of worker identification. My suggestion is that–ALL-I-9’s should be copied and a duplicates sent to a Homeland Security Clearing House? Creating such an office would be a simple affair, if our state and federal government would be more beneficial to the working American male and female. If our government is sincere in securing our borders, ports and airlines and introducing new immigration enforcement tools, then E-Verify will become the final deterrent and not be weakened by Sen Harry Reid and his administration. I have made a point of speaking to a few business human resources departments, and found most are enthusiastic about the use of Verify. Only 1 of the 6 companies that I investigated determined some false negatives” and “false positives. But they always have a backup system of contacting the Social Security agency nearest to them, until the irregularities are resolved. Most immigration enforcement laws that have survived, such as 287 (g), is under attack, including the ICE raids. They have already silently rescinded the No-Match-Letter and other indicators show that the parties have many pro-illegal immigrant legislators amongst them?

All that remains is citizens and legal residents to stop the Obama people from throwing a wrench in the cogs and stopping any technological advancement with E-Verify. E-Verify can be used on a universal level in checking bogus drivers license applications, auto insurance, home purchase, health care and other personal data. It would certainly alleviate the kidnapping of social service programs by the 20 to 30 illegal immigrants in America. It would displace foreign nationals so down-trodden legal single mums with children, homeless vets, senior citizens and even students could get employment. It all depends on all of us to contact our Representative in Washington at 202-224-3121. Tell them you don’t want half measures by full permanent implementation? NO MORE DRAGGING THEIR FEET? Tell them your remember them on next election day. YOU ALSO WANT TO COMMAND THEM. NO MORE AMNESTIES.

There could be massive civil unrest if illegal immigrants get preference over the millions of potential immigrants waiting in foreign countries for an entry visa, who took the legal road here. Only a few major riots like ‘Watts” have ever incubate into a backlash of violence, not seen since the British loyalists were hunted down by the revolutionaries. Their is a building crescendo on the Internet, that sees the Democrats forcing through any kind of citizenship as a dangerous precedence?

How can you count illegal immigrants, when they don’t even exist other than on ICE arrest lists. Sen. Vitters is right you cannot enumerate those who purposely broke the law. Small states will miss out big time on federal dollars in the 2010 Census, while mass illegal immigrant states will gain more seats in Congress and too much power and influence in general elections? California specifically, because of the handicapped zombie Liberal Democrats In Sacramento, who should be thrown out of office into a garbage dump, owing to the billions they used underwriting the illegal alien population. They caused the financial crisis in the once-Golden state, by ignoring the millions of illegal aliens, gang bangers bleeding San Fran and Los Angeles dry of revenue. Of course ICE could check the immigration status of those who are counted, even though it’s supposedly against US law? Or is counting 20 million plus (?) non-legal residence against the US Constitution? But then these politicians do not recognize what is illegal from illegal anymore? Democrats are still endeavoring to give the children of illegal immigrants, access to colleges and university. Our children should come first because we are citizens and permanent residents. My son is a citizen and born here and deserves the consideration from the legislators, not as in some states given special treatment to children whose parents condemn them to a life of being hunted by ICE.

Don’t let them distract you, but repeat your demands without hesitation to these open border jerks. Invest a little time and check what your politicians are doing to our immigration enforcement safeguard at NUMBERSUSA. Read about the consequences of future OVERPOPULATION at CAPSWEB and our collapsing infrastructure, that has been ignored for decades nationwide. Last read factual information at JUDICIAL WATCH that discloses the lawmakers, that are running the country for themselves, friends and business associates. ITS ALL FREE. Read that some of the White House Czars are not true Democrats, but are shadowed by their past Liberal Marxist backgrounds.

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