Georgia immigration employee pleads guilty to fraud

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The U.S. Department of Citizenship and Immigration Services is investigating reports that one of its Atlanta employees has pleaded guilty in  New Jersey to staging the theft of her Range Rover.

Tahaya Buchanan, 39, pleaded guilty Monday in Newark, N.J.,  to insurance fraud and was sentenced to three months' probation. She was indicted in 2007 and a nationwide alert was issued for her. She was arrested last July when an officer making a routine traffic stop in New Jersey saw the outstanding arrest warrant, the Newark Star-Ledger reported.

Chris Bentley, spokesman for the immigration service, said Wednesday the Atlanta office of the agency, then known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, hired Buchanan in 1995 as an analyst and she was still employed, now in the Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Bentley said a background check is conducted on each employee before he or she is hired and a criminal history check is performed every 10 years. Bentley’s was last checked in 2005, before the charge was brought.

Agency employees are required to take “integrity training” yearly and  to report any contact they have with law enforcement officers, Bentley said.

“All USCIS employees must report,” Bentley said.

He said USCIS was conducting its own investigation to determine “timelines and to determine what needs to be done.”