In case you missed it, here is a copy of a story that ran in our paper on Saturday.

Mt. Vernon woman convicted in immigration fraud
BY TIMOTHY O’CONNOR • THE JOURNAL NEWS • SEPTEMBER 13, 2008

NEW YORK – A Mount Vernon woman faces up to 10 years in a federal prison after pleading guilty in an immigration fraud case.

Jennifer Rowe, 51, admitted she conspired to commit mail fraud and visa fraud. She pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Rowe was charged in September 2007 along with Pape Seck with defrauding illegal immigrants who paid up to $5,000 hoping to gain permanent residency and citizenship. While Rowe pleaded guilty yesterday, Seck remains a fugitive.

Reached at her home last night, Rowe said Seck was to blame.

“It wasn’t my fault that this happened,” she said. “It was because of this man who took off with these people’s money and left me in the wind.”

Federal prosecutors said Rowe and Seck duped the illegal immigrants into thinking they were eligible for amnesty under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1986. Rowe advertised in immigrant communities in the New York City area. The ads promised she could help immigrants obtain permanent residency. But the illegal immigrants were not eligible for the amnesty program.

Rowe and Seck took fees of $1,000 to $5,000 and the immigrants’ passports. They then submitted false application packages for amnesty to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency on behalf of the immigrants, federal authorities said. None of the applications were successful.

When Seck took off, the angry clients came after Rowe. She said that’s what led to her prosecution.

“These people are blaming me because they are furious,” she said, “because he ran away and I had given them my address, my telephone number.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who arrested Rowe said she told them that Seck called her about a month previously to tell her he had $100,000 and passports to return to her. But she said she never heard from him again.

Rowe is to be sentenced Jan. 6 by U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty.

“It’s something I never wanted to be,” she said, “this shame, this disgrace.”