http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2793
By MARY LOU PICKEL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Kennesaw http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3042 was sentenced to nine years in prison Tuesday for her part in a profitable multi-state scheme to encourage illegal immigrants to file untruthful visa applications.
The Rev. Emma Gerald, 56, was convicted in December of helping mostly http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=1308 County, Florida and other states file applications for temporary residency, work permits, and travel permits.
“I’d like to apologize to the United States,” Gerald said at her sentencing hearing Tuesday in Atlanta at the U.S. Federal District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Gerald said she “didn’t think it was wrong,” when she charged illegal immigrants hundreds of dollars to fill out untruthful applications.Prosecutors had argued for a 14-year sentence, saying Gerald was responsible for more than 1,000 fraudulent applications, and her sentence was needed to deter others.
Gerald ran a small local church and conducted her scam in immigrant churches across the country.
Also found guilty of conspiracy were Gerald’s son, Douglas Ross; Hudson Araujo, who helped set up meetings in Massachusetts; and Brazilian Pastor Ruy Brasil Silva, who introduced Gerald to his Bethel Christian Church congregation in Marietta. Sentencing dates for Silva and Araujo have not been set.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cobb/stories/2008/05/20/immigsentence_0521.html