Illegal alien assemblywoman sentenced to prison

From Crains:

A former state lawmaker accused of buying an $8,000 sham marriage to gain citizenship was sentenced Friday to a year in prison by a judge who said pursuit of the American dream was a poor excuse for her actions.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ignored requests for leniency so that 47-year-old Gabriela Rosa, a native of the Dominican Republic, could care for her son and her mother.

The judge said she found "troubling" suggestions that Rosa was merely naive or was following the American dream when she falsely married a U.S. citizen and then lied about it to become a citizen in 2005.

Rosa's lawyer, Genesis A. Peduto, told the judge her client got married to obtain a green card 20 years ago when she was following the American dream and "looking for a better life."

"Are you suggesting that committing marriage fraud, which in this case meant paying $8,000 to another person and lying to immigration officials for years, is the American dream?" the judge asked.

"Not at all, your honor," Judge Peduto responded. "She is very remorseful for what she did and has accepted responsibility for what she has done."

The federal Probation Department recommended no prison sentence, but Cote disagreed, saying written submissions on Ms. Rosa's behalf included "very troubling suggestions" that the crime resulted in part because Rosa was following the American dream.

She said the suggestions were a "disservice to all our immigrants who actually try to follow the law and gain citizenship legitimately."

A round of applause for the judge.

Assembly Member turns out to be illegal alien

From the NY Times:

A New York assemblywoman in her first term became the latest state lawmaker to be forced out of office as she pleaded guilty on Friday to two felonies in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

The assemblywoman, Gabriela Rosa of Manhattan, unlike some of her convicted colleagues, was not accused of bribery; she was undone by making false statements, including one concerning a fraudulent marriage that she admitted was part of an immigration scheme.

Ms. Rosa told Judge Denise Cote that she had gotten married some years ago to “regularize my immigration status.”

“I married this person and it was not a real marriage,” she said.

Prosecutors said that around 1996, Ms. Rosa, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, paid a United States citizen about $8,000 to enter into “a sham marriage” while she was in a relationship with a man she would later marry; she ended the sham marriage a few years later. In subsequent submissions to the immigration authorities, she falsely represented that her marriage had been bona fide, the government said.

Ms. Rosa pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements, to immigration authorities and in a bankruptcy proceeding. As part of her plea, Ms. Rosa agreed to resign from the Assembly, where she had represented the 72nd Assembly District, which includes Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill.

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said that Ms. Rosa’s crimes “cut to the heart of her legal qualification to serve the people of the State of New York as a New York State assemblywoman.”

“She gained the ability to run for that office only as a result of a yearslong immigration fraud, and then she compounded her lack of fitness to serve by defrauding a federal bankruptcy court,” Mr. Bharara said.

Ms. Rosa also admitted that she had received $1,000 from a representative of a foreign government in connection with her election to the Assembly, a violation of the campaign finance laws, and she agreed to return the money, her plea agreement says.

Although she faces a maximum of 10 years in prison when sentenced on Oct. 3, the plea agreement says that both sides have agreed that the recommended guideline range is 12 to 18 months.