Lorraine Henderson

The regional director of Homeland Security, Customs, and Border Protection was charged today with repeatedly hiring illegal immigrants to clean her Salem home after one cleaner wore a wire during an undercover investigation.

Lorraine Henderson is the director of the Port of Boston, overseeing 190 armed federal officers who patrol major airports and shipping terminals in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. “She’s supposed to be deporting aliens, not hiring them,” said Assistant US Attorney Brian T. Kelly, chief of the public corruption unit. Agents arrested Henderson at her Salem home at 8 a.m. Standing this afternoon in US District Court in Boston, she wore jeans and a gray sweatshirt and did not enter a plea to a charge of encouraging an illegal immigrant to remain in the country. If convicted, she faces as much as 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

According to an eight-page affidavit unsealed today, Henderson had employed a Brazilian woman to clean her home for $75 to $80 every few weeks for several years. “You have to be careful ’cause they will deport you. Be careful,” Henderson told the housekeeper in a conversation Sept. 9, 2008, that was recorded on the wire. “Wow, wow, if you leave they won’t let you back … you can’t leave, don’t leave … ’cause once you leave you will never be back.” After the conversation that day in her Salem home, Henderson increased the woman’s pay from $75 to $80, according to the affidavit. The housekeeper, whose name was not included in the affidavit, agreed to wear a wire after being approached by a special agent with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

So she is stupid and cheap. And the beat goes on.




  1. Daniel says:

    Corrupt officials in Boston??! Oh my!

  2. Improbus says:

    Sounds like a Republican to me. Hypocrite to the core.

  3. Angel H. Wong says:

    #3

    She looks masculine, she must be a Democrat.

  4. deowll says:

    Stupid? Yes.

    Cheap? Eighty dollars to clean a house once? This was most likely a day to half a days work.

    Many people who need good help don’t see much reason to run honest, hard working people you can count on out of the country….

    I’m sure she’d have been more than happy to deport a drug dealer or gang banger.

  5. hhopper says:

    Yeah… cheap. We checked with a local cleaning agency and they wanted $175 dollars for one cleaning. We said nooooooooooooooo way!

  6. James Hill says:

    Well, he was directing them to do something…

  7. Mr. Fusion says:

    Although a Bush Administration flunky, she was set up by her own people.

  8. jescott418 says:

    Another corrupt official OMG stop the presses! Maybe our government officials are not making enough money, if they have to hire illegals to clean their houses. Or maybe their just spending too much on prostitutes. It happens!

  9. LBalsam says:

    Services that hire legal workers, (pay at least minimum wage,taxes and benefits), charge more than illegal freelancers who pay no taxes and probably cannot afford health insurance.

    Makes sense to me.

  10. The0ne says:

    Saddens me every time I read articles like this. Makes one think how things ever get done with people like this at making decisions. With the recent crisis going on, it’s pretty sad imo.


0

Bad Behavior has blocked 10480 access attempts in the last 7 days.