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Former Homeland Security official testifies in illegal housekeeper case

E-mail|Link|Comments () March 19, 2010 02:46 PM

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

A former Department of Homeland Security official maintained her innocence today as she testified in her trial on a charge that she encouraged her Brazilian housekeeper to stay in the country illegally.

Lorraine Henderson

Lorraine Henderson, 52, of Salem said she ignored a co-worker who advised her in December 2005 that the housekeeper was here illegally because she didn't believe it. She said she never confronted the housekeeper about the issue.

"I didn't think we had the authority to ask her if she was illegal," Henderson said on the fourth day of her trial in US District Court in Boston.

Henderson said that the housekeeper, Fabiana Bitencourt, eventually confided in September 2008 that she had an immigration problem. Henderson said that, at the time, she wrongly assumed the housekeeper was a legal resident because she had a US-born baby.

After discovering that Bitencourt entered the United States illegally through Mexico, Henderson consulted an immigration specialist at work who advised her, "I have some bad news for you. You need to hire a new cleaning woman."

Henderson said she planned to fire Bitencourt, but she never had the chance because Bitencourt didn't show up for work again.

Henderson was suspended without pay from her job as Boston-area port director for US Customs and Border Protection after her arrest 15 months ago.

Bitencourt testified Thursday that she cleaned Henderson's Salem condo between 2004 and 2008. She said she began cooperating with federal agents when they confronted her in May 2008 as part of an internal investigation into Henderson.