Fil-Am ex-border officer sentenced for fake-marriage-for-green-card scheme

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection arm patch and badge. REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian

SEATTLE – U.S. District Court sentenced a Filipino American former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer Friday, Sept. 16, for agreeing to a sham marriage so that her childhood acquaintance could immigrate to the United States and obtain U.S. citizenship.

Katherine De Leon Evaristo, 39, of Burien, Washington, was sentenced to two years of probation for immigration fraud. She was to be paid $20,000 for the fake marriage. Evaristo later obtained a job at the Office of Field Operations for CBP and used her position to make an inquiry into her husband’s immigration status.

At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones imposed the sentence of two years of probation, noting Evaristo had lost her career in public service and was unlikely to reoffend.”

According to court records, in late 2012, Evaristo was approached by a cousin about a sham marriage after she attended her brother’s funeral in the Philippines.

She agreed to the sham marriage in exchange for $20,000 with half paid at the start of the scheme and the other half when the fake spouse obtained citizenship.

Evaristo applied for a fiancé visa for the fake spouse, he traveled to the U.S. in 2015, and the couple was “married” in San Diego.

In 2017, the couple applied for citizenship for the “spouse,” and in 2019, again lied in their interview about the sham marriage to try to obtain citizenship.

The investigation began when Evaristo improperly used her access to a federal law enforcement database to check on the immigration status of her sham husband.

CBP officers looking into the improper access knew Evaristo was dating another person and so began to unravel the sham marriage scheme. When Evaristo was interviewed in 2021, she admitted the scheme.

Evaristo was indicted in September 2021. She pleaded guilty in May 2022.

In recommending a probationary sentence, prosecutors noted that Evaristo is the single parent of infant twins: “Evaristo has experienced significant consequences of her crime that go beyond a custodial sentence: She lost her job at CBP—a job she spent years securing and that afforded her a comfortable income—and now works a lower-wage warehouse job. These consequences along with the restricted liberty of probation reflect the seriousness of the crime and are likely to deter any future criminal conduct,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo.