An Atlanta-area immigration attorney who received a “Champions of Change” award from the White House last year was arraigned this week on federal charges of visa fraud and witness tampering.
Bonnie M. Youn has encouraged an immigrant to reside illegally in the U.S. since 2009 for Youn’s “financial benefit,” according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Atlanta. Youn also filed false documents with the federal government to obtain legal status for her client in the U.S. and then — once the investigation began — encouraged her client to lie to federal agents, federal prosecutors said.
Youn has pleaded not guilty.
The White House referred questions to the Justice Department and said it no longer recognizes Youn as a “Champion of Change.” The White House website describes the award as a special recognition for people “doing extraordinary things in their communities to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.”
“We expect lawyers to uphold and defend the rule of law, not assist clients in breaking the law, as Ms. Youn is charged in this indictment,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a prepared statement issued this week.
A federal grand jury indicted Youn on April 1. She was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond and ordered to surrender her U.S. passport.
Youn issued a prepared statement about the federal charges Wednesday, saying she intends to “vigorously fight them and establish my innocence.”
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