An ICE Lawyer Was Charged With Stealing Immigrants' Identities to Defraud Multiple Banks

A tale that evokes the American dream: Work hard, go to a great college, make it your life’s mission facilitate the deportation of as many immigrants as possible, realize that dream by joining U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, steal the identities of multiple people whose immigration statuses are under review by your employer, and proceed to use those identities to defraud some of the country’s largest banks.

That is a brief chronicle of the life and times of Raphael Sanchez, ICE’s chief legal counsel in Seattle, who was charged Monday with one count of aggravated identity theft and one of wire fraud, the Associated Press reports.

Sanchez reportedly stole the identities of seven people “in various stages of immigration proceedings,” the AP reported Tuesday, defrauding companies like American Express, Bank of America, and Capital One. He resigned from the agency Monday.

Sanchez is expected to enter a plea on Thursday.