Federal prosecutors have charged three current or former police chiefs with accepting bribes in exchange for filing false police reports to help noncitizens seek special immigrant visas.
Oakdale Police Chief Chad Doyle, Forest Hill Police Chief Glynn Dixon and former Glenmora Police Chief Tebo Onishea — all of whom serve or served in Louisiana — allegedly accepted cash in exchange for making bogus police reports, allowing noncitizens to apply for U visas, according to a Wednesday press release by the Department of Justice (DOJ). U visas are special immigrant visas that certain noncitizens, including illegal migrants, can apply for if they are victims of crime in the United States.
The alleged conspiracy — which also involved Chandrakant “Lala” Patel, an Oakdale businessman, and Michael “Freck” Slaney, a marshal in Oakdale — lasted for nearly a decade, according to prosecutors. The defendants are accused of making up fake robberies in order to name migrants as victims.
“The indictment alleges that Patel, Doyle, Slaney, Dixon, Onishea, and others, authored, facilitated, produced and authenticated false police reports in several central Louisiana parishes,” the DOJ press release stated. “Each report listed several victims of purported armed robberies in the central Louisiana area, and the defendants produced false police reports so that the purported victims of the robberies could apply for U-Visas.”
Noncitizens seeking U visas would reach out to Patel, who would then allegedly contact the police chiefs and offer them payment in order to falsely write up police reports that named the migrants as victims of armed robberies that never actually took place, according to prosecutors.
The DOJ said the alleged scheme generated thousands of dollars for those involved, with foreign nationals paying Patel thousands of dollars to participate.
“The indictment further alleges that from approximately September 27, 2023 until December 26, 2024, Doyle, Slaney, Dixon, and Onishea did knowingly submit false statements with respect to material facts in immigration applications by signing I-918B forms as certifying officials stating that individuals were cooperating victims of crimes, which statements the defendants knew to be false and that the individuals were never victims of the crimes alleged in the I-918B forms,” the DOJ stated in its press release.
However, the U visa program has been plagued with fraud since its inception. For years, migrants have been charged with staging crimes or filing false accusations in order to score U visas to help them remain in the country.
Jessica Vaughan, a director with the Center for Immigration Studies, previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation the U visa program has become a means for foreign nationals to “launder their status,” with many law enforcement agencies signing off on their applications without any due diligence. A 2022 Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report determined that the program was susceptible to fraud.
If convicted, the police chiefs and other alleged conspirators could face decades in prison, according to the DOJ. Each defendant faces a sentence of up to five years in jail on conspiracy charges, up to a decade on the visa fraud charges and up to 20 years on the mail fraud charge.
(Featured Image Media Credit:Â ajay_suresh/Creative Commons/Flickr)
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