H-1B Teacher Arrested for Child Molestation

Date: Sunday, April 10, 2005 2:41 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

by Rob Sanchez
April 10, 2005 No. 1231

When employers decide to hire an H-1B they are dependant on the foreign
country to supply reliable documents about the past background of the
H-1B applicant. Obtaining reliable information is very difficult when
the H-1B comes from a 3rd world country where government corruption is
rampant and documents are easily falsified. Despite the obvious dangers
of hiring these people the security concerns never seem to faze
employers or our Department of Homeland Security. For years labor
activists have been warning about the security risk of hiring unsecured
aliens and there have even been Congressional hearings on the subject
but so far all the warnings have landed on deaf ears.

Security seems to be of very little concern to the school systems in
Texas. They have hired at least 500 teachers from Mexico on H-1B visas
even though they have no good way to verify if the criminal background
information they get from Mexico is valid.

Next time you drop your kids off to school, just keep in mind that the
schools doing the hiring of teachers have a very cavalier attitude when
it comes to checking out the quality of their foreign teachers. Even
though everyone knows that criminal background documents from Mexico
are worthless pieces of paper, listen to what this social service
director had to say about their efforts in Texas to screen school
teachers:

"You do as much as you possibly can and you hope for the best.
If there was some way to be 100 percent sure - but you can't
do that. You can't even do that in Texas."

The schools obviously aren't doing as much as they need to, as you will
discover by reading the news article below. One of their Mexican H-1B
elementary school teachers has been arrested for molesting three
6-year-old girls. Texas as well as most other states are hiring
teachers with H-1Bs from countries such as India and the Phillipines
that pose just as much of a security risk and yet seem to raise no
concerns among the schools and the clueless parents that probably have
no idea that their schools are hiring foreign teachers instead of U.S.
citizens.

Unfortunately the article below is vague about the criminal background
of the teacher who did the molesting so it's difficult to determine if
this abuse could have been prevented but apparently he did have some
kind of criminal record. You might think an incident like this would
prompt the Texas school system to re-check the backgrounds of their
H-1B teachers, but of course if it's a choice between hiring cheap
compliant teachers or the safety of the children, the decision is
almost always made in favor of the bottom line.

Landeros' arrest has not prompted district officials to
consider additional background checks on its other recruits
from Mexico or any other CISD employee, Galindo said.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14317903&BRD=1574&PAG=461&dept_id=532215&rfi=6

04/10/2005
Holes in background check system cited
By:Nancy Flake , Courier staff

The lack of available criminal background history for non-immigrant
workers entering the United States from Mexico has prompted a local
legislator to "explore" new ways to share data between the two
countries.
And while officials ranging from immigration attorneys to employment
screening executives say background checks conducted in Mexico are
questionable, at least one Montgomery County school district believes
the screening system is "competent."
Concerns about Mexican criminal background checks were raised after
Jorge Estrada Landeros, 43, a Creighton Elementary School first-grade
teacher, was arrested March 15 for aggravated sexual assault of a
child. An ongoing investigation has included interviews of three
6-year-old girls who allege Landeros touched them inappropriately at
the school.
The teacher is one of 21 Mexican nationals working for the Conroe
Independent School District under an accelerated certification process.
Landeros was recruited during a Region IV Education Service Center
recruitment trip to Monterrey, Mexico, in November 2003 and started
working for the school district in August 2004 as a bilingual teacher
at Grangerland Intermediate School.
He is in the United States on an H1B visa, issued to international
professionals by the federal government to allow U.S. companies to hire
university-educated foreigners to fill jobs requiring specialized
skills and knowledge. A shortage of bilingual teachers in Texas
prompted the Texas Education Agency to allow accelerated certification
programs for degreed individuals from Mexico and other Spanish-speaking
countries to intern in school districts as they earn certification.
Currently, 65,000 foreign nationals are allowed into the United States
each year under the H1B visa program to work in a variety of
professional fields. The visas are good for three years, then reviewed
and can be extended for another three years.
The Regional IV Education Service Center in Houston, which serves 55
districts, began recruiting Mexican nationals in 1992 and has recruited
approximately 500 interns during that time, according to Mackey Ervin,
managing director of social services. While he said the Region IV ESC
"hasn't had any problems" with background checks done in Mexico, he
admitted there were no guarantees.
"We ask for a national search and state search," he said. "You do as
much as you possibly can and you hope for the best. If there was some
way to be 100 percent sure - but you can't do that. You can't even do
that in Texas."
Besides Landeros, Ervin said he had heard of only one other criminal
problem with a Region IV ESC recruit.
"This was an individual who had lived in the U.S. at one time and had
gone back to Mexico," he said. "It turned out he had a history in the
U.S."
While the United States has taken a number of steps to get the best
information possible on criminal histories in Mexico, corruption within
that country makes it hard, according to a local immigration attorney
who works with international workers seeking H1B visas.
"Because of the abundance of forgeries and the comparative ease in
getting documents to say untruths in Mexico, it's difficult to confirm
the accuracy of someone's information," said Joan Bennett, a Conroe
attorney. "It's very difficult because of forgeries and frauds. It's so
easy to get corrupted documents out of Mexico. Short of going there and
checking it yourself, it's very tough. Corruption exists at all levels.
I've seen some incredibly good forgeries.
"I feel very bad that there are a lot of good people who can't come in,
and then there are those who cheat to get in and then stay."
The U.S. government used to require H1B and other nonimmigrant worker
visa applicants to simply swear on an application form that they had
never been convicted of a crime, according to Jessica Vaughn, senior
policy analyst with the Center for Immigration Studies, an independent,
nonpartisan, nonprofit research think tank devoted to research and
policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal and other
impacts of immigration on the United States.
Even now, police certificates are not required by applicants from
dozens of countries, including Mexico, and if they were, Vaughn said,
they wouldn't be worth the paper they're printed on.
"Mexico certainly has a reputation for corrupt government, particularly
in law enforcement," she said. "I suppose you could try to verify
(documents). But in a place like Mexico, you couldn't really be certain
that the local office issuing the document wasn't on the take or
something like that.
"I can't imagine that it would be easy to verify much of anything in
Mexico; even some of the birth and marriage certificates are kind of
questionable."
John Faris, business development manager for Inquest, a California
company that provides pre-employment screening for a number of large
companies, said criminal background checks done in Mexico are "iffy."
"Very few countries have access to courts," he said. "Mexican
background checks are done from the police. It's pretty dicey. The
information you get depends on what region you're checking with. Mexico
City might have a wealth of information, but someplace like Chihuahua
(a Mexican state) might not have very much."
While the process to check out H1B applicants is thorough, it can leave
unanswered questions about a person's background.
"The Department of Homeland Security runs Interpol and international
warrants," said U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands. "Then it goes
to the U.S. Consulate in Mexico, and they run fingerprints and follow
up on any visa denials. The applicant must physically meet with the
U.S. Consulate."
But, the U.S. Consulate does not have access to the Mexican criminal
database, "just as Mexico does not have access to ours," Brady said.
"As thorough as INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) and
Homeland Security is, it is limited by that feature. Background checks
don't always identify potential sex offenders."
Now, Brady wants to "explore" the possibility of working out some sort
of information exchange between the United States and Mexico. "I will
visit with the State Department and Homeland Security and find out if
there's an avenue to open up," he said. "Maybe there's some way we can
voluntarily work out a way to do this."
Criminal background checks done for the Conroe ISD recruits were
performed by the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services before the H1B
visas were issued, and the State Board for Educator Certification
performs state and national checks when a teacher is applying for
certification. CISD officials are confident the checks are thorough,
according to spokeswoman Kay Galindo.
"Background checks of this type by these agencies have been conducted
for years; we believe that the system is competent," she said.
Landeros' arrest has not prompted district officials to consider
additional background checks on its other recruits from Mexico or any
other CISD employee, Galindo said.
"Every employee has a background check conducted prior to being hired,"
she said. "Although CISD is always reviewing its policies and
procedures, there are no plans at this time to conduct additional
background checks on any of our employees."
The Courier requested Landeros' background check from the CISD.
However, that information is considered private and the CISD could not
comment on the personnel matter.
Brady, who is the father of two young children, thinks CISD officials
should consider stopping recruitment in Mexico while re-evaluating
whether thorough background checks can be obtained.
"As a parent, I would recommend if the school district is having
problems from a particular region to rethink recruiting from there and
rethink the company that does the recruiting for them," he said. "The
company that recruits them has the onus on them to check backgrounds.
Knowing they can't get that information ... maybe CISD isn't aware of
that."
At the Region IV ESC, Ervin said he doesn't know if the current system
"is correct."
"If the system is corrupt, I'm not privy to that," he said. "Anytime
you deal with immigration, it's complicated."

Nancy Flake can be reached at nflake@mail.hcnonline.net.

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