Border security official charged

Allegedly hired illegal workers Oversaw guards at local ports

Lorraine Henderson left the federal courthouse yesterday. (Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff)

The official in charge of keeping Massachusetts ports of entry free of illegal immigration and drug smuggling was arrested yesterday on charges that she repeatedly hired undocumented immigrants to clean her Salem condominium.

Lorraine Henderson, the Boston area port director for the Customs and Border Protection Division of the US Department of Homeland Security, was arrested at her home shortly before 8 a.m. after an eight-month undercover investigation during which a cleaner wore a wire.

Federal prosecutors said Henderson - who directs 190 armed officers who oversee ports of entry in Rhode Island and Connecticut as well as Massachusetts - became a target after she ignored a warning from a fellow employee that her regular cleaner was an illegal immigrant from Brazil.

"She's supposed to be deporting aliens, not hiring them," said Assistant US Attorney Brian T. Kelly, chief of the public corruption unit.

As Boston area port director, Henderson oversees the inspection and admission of foreign nationals at sites such as Logan International Airport, T.F. Green International Airport in Rhode Island, and Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. She can also grant or deny waivers to illegal immigrants seeking to enter the country.

US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said in a statement that it was unconscionable for any Customs and Border Protection employee to be "violating the same immigration laws that they are charged with upholding."

Looking drained after spending six hours in custody, Henderson, 50, clad in a gray sweatshirt and blue jeans, briefly appeared before US Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings yesterday in Boston on a charge of encouraging an illegal immigrant to stay in the United States.

She was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond after saying little in court and declining to talk to reporters. As is customary when federal defendants are charged through a criminal complaint, she did not enter a plea in her initial appearance.

Oscar Cruz, a federal defender, represented Henderson at the hearing, but she said she expected to hire a private attorney. Cruz did not address the substance of the charges at the hearing.

Prosecutors characterized the case as an extraordinary example of hypocrisy by a law enforcement official. But advocates for immigration reform said it illustrated the broken nature of the immigration system and the near impossibility for ordinary Americans to avoid doing business with undocumented workers.

"There are 12 million undocumented workers in the United States, and if you buy clothes, if you buy a car, if you eat in a restaurant, you support them," said Fausto da Rocha, executive director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center in Allston.

Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum in Washington, D.C., expressed sympathy for Henderson.

"While what Lorraine Henderson did may not fit with the requirements of her job, she's obviously acting with compassion for a person she knows," he said. "That's the tragic irony of our immigration system."

If convicted, Henderson faces as much as 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Christina DiIorio-Sterling, a spokeswoman for Sullivan, did not know how often federal prosecutors bring charges of harboring illegal immigrants against individuals who have hired undocumented workers to clean their homes.

Henderson, who also temporarily oversaw border protection in Los Angeles this year, surrendered her gun, badge, and government vehicle and was placed on administrative leave, according to a spokeswoman for Sullivan.

According to an eight-page affidavit unsealed yesterday, Henderson had employed a Brazilian woman to clean her house since at least 2004 and paid her about $75 in cash each time. Henderson recommended the cleaner - who was not identified in the affidavit - to a fellow Customs and Border Protection officer, saying the worker was trustworthy and thorough.

That officer, who was also not identified, then hired the woman to clean her home once a month for about a year, paying by check, according to the affidavit.

In late 2005, the unidentified officer received a memorandum and an e-mail from Customs and Border Protection warning employees not to hire illegal immigrants while off duty. In response, the officer asked the Brazilian cleaner whether she was in the United States legally. The woman replied that she had paid thousands of dollars to enter the country illegally after crossing the border with Mexico.

As a result, the unidentified officer fired the cleaner the same day and reported the incident to her supervisor in Boston, said the affidavit. The officer alerted Henderson in winter 2006 about the cleaner's status and assumed she would fire her.

But two years later, Henderson gave the officer a ride home and told her that the woman was still cleaning her Salem home. The officer then alerted a supervisor, leading to an investigation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Professional Responsibility.

In May, an agent from that office interviewed the cleaner, who confirmed she was an illegal immigrant and agreed to tape conversations with Henderson. During one conversation at her Salem home on Sept. 9, Henderson allegedly counseled the cleaner to avoid detection by law enforcement.

"You have to be careful 'cause they will deport you. Be careful," Henderson said, according to the affidavit. "Wow, wow, if you leave, they won't let you back. . . . You can't leave, don't leave . . . 'cause once you leave, you will never be back."

A investigator from Immigration and Customs Enforcement also interviewed two other Brazilian nationals, said the affidavit, who said they were illegal immigrants who had cleaned Henderson's home when her regular housekeeper took time off after giving birth.

Paula Grenier, a spokeswoman for ICE in Boston, whose agents arrested Henderson yesterday, said in a statement that the agency takes allegations of misconduct by employees "very seriously" and will thoroughly investigate them.

Ted Woo, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Assistant US Attorney John T. McNeil, who represented the government at the 15-minute court hearing yesterday, declined to say what has happened with the illegal immigrants who allegedly worked for Henderson and whether they will be deported.

Henderson's arrest is the latest controversy involving the hiring of illegal immigrants by government officials in Massachusetts.

Former governor Mitt Romney was dogged by stories, first reported by the Globe in December 2006, that he hired a landscaping company that employed illegal immigrants to tend to the grounds of his Belmont house. A year later, when he was running for the Republican presidential nomination, the Globe reported that he continued to use the company even though it still employed undocumented workers, prompting Romney to fire the firm.

In addition, the Globe reported in June 2006 that a company that cleaned the State Police headquarters and 18 barracks and other facilities around Massachusetts had employed scores of undocumented immigrants.

Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com