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This woman should be joined by thousands of other crooks who profit from illegal immigration. I only wish the sentence had been 10 years without the possibility of parole.
Quote:
TAMPA -The owner of La Gringa Professional Immigration Services said she fabricated documents and asylum petitions because her clients needed her.
"As God is my witness, at no time did I intentionally seek to defraud this government," Branks, 58, tearfully told a federal judge today. "My focus was on the client. … It was never for financial gain. It was just my passion to help."
Branks was sentenced to four years and nine months in federal prison for conspiring to make false statements in documents required by immigration authorities.
"Every single file that came from Barbara Branks' business is now tainted," Toro-Font told the judge. "This was no charity operation. The defendant made her living out of this business. (She was) doing it for the money."
In addition to the prison sentence, Covington ordered Branks to forfeit $816,000, the estimated profit from the fraud. Branks also must serve two years of probation upon her release.
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