Ex-Immigration Lawyer Sentenced For False Asylum Claims

In an effort to help Syrian and Iraqi clients win asylum in the U.S., Robert DeKelaita made bogus claims of torture and religious persecution. DeKalaita used false applicant names, religions, dates of entry into the U.S., birthdays and family histories and made up false accounts of rape, murder, and religious persecution at the hands of alleged Islamic extremists, prosecutors said. A district court judge sentenced DeKelaita to 15 months in prison for the falsified documents, saying the decade-long scheme has “a ripple effect” that erodes public trust. The 15 months is less than the three-and-a-half years that prosecutors sought. “He learned [the system’s] loopholes and gamed them, fitting his carefully crafted lies into what he knew asylum officers to be looking for, matching those lies with media reports of real events in {his clients’) home countries,” they wrote in a court filing. Judge Matthew Kennelly said the case was a “mixed bag,” and that DeKelaita had “decided that whatever he needed to do to get these people into the country … was justifiable.”