Help us find Annie
Who's watching the Watchers?
The regional director of Homeland Security, Customs, and Border Protection was charged today with repeatedly hiring illegal immigrants to clean her Salem home after one cleaner wore a wire during an undercover investigation.
Lorraine Henderson is the director of the Port of Boston, overseeing 190 armed federal officers who patrol major airports and shipping terminals in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
"She’s supposed to be deporting aliens, not hiring them," said Assistant US Attorney Brian T. Kelly, chief of the public corruption unit.
Agents arrested Henderson at her Salem home at 8 a.m. Standing this afternoon in US District Court in Boston, she wore jeans and a gray sweatshirt and did not enter a plea to a charge of encouraging an illegal immigrant to remain in the country. If convicted, she faces as much as 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The initial appearance lasted 15 minutes and Henderson said little, responding to questions from Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings about whether she understood her legal rights with one-word answers. Collings released her on a $25,000 unsecured bond and ordered her to surrender her passport. Henderson has been placed on paid administrative leave, a US Attorney's spokeswoman said.
$25,000 unsecured bond means, if I am not mistaken, that Henderson didn't have to put up a goddamn dime to get out of jail. I have seen higher bail amounts applied to minor traffic violations.
And "paid administrative leave?" Why not put her salary in escrow during the interval between now and her trial/sentencing? If she's convicted and sent to prison, what's the probability that the state will get that pay back? If I were in Henderson's shoes, I'd be spending that money as soon as I got it, if not sooner.