US immigration officer is arrested amid corruption allegations

December 09 2009 by Liam Clifford

A US immigration official from Queens New York, aptly named Christmas, has been arrested on corruption charges

A US immigration officer has been arrested on charges of extorting money from at least four separate victims applying for permanent US citizenship.

Melford Christmas, 41, worked at the Garden City immigration office in New York, it was here he interviewed US visa holders seeking to become permanent US citizens - scoring them for English ability and on American history and laws.

In one case, an applicant had failed both English and American tests and returned to Christmas' office on July 24, 2007, for a re-test.
After 5-minutes and two sentences, Christmas proposed to pass the applicant in exchange for $800.

On another occasion, Christmas allegedly found out that an applicant had $3,000 in savings and told him that although it was "not a lot of money, he would try and help" if he was paid $2,750.

Money did not change hands within the government office. Christmas instead met the victims near their homes.

If convicted, the maximum sentence is 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Christmas, of Queens New York, was released on $100,000 bail.

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