A former immigration attorney with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement will have to spend 17 years in prison, after being convicted of over 30 felonies. Among other things, the 40-year-old man was convicted for having accepted over $400,000 from illegal immigrants in the United States, in return for helping them to remain in the country. The ex ICE assistant chief council is also guilty of obstructing justice, committing fraud and identity theft, as well as evading taxes. Since 2000, the man and his 41-year-old wife had deposited nearly $1 million in the bank, not counting the man’s salary from the U.S. government. Part of the evidence in the trial of the former immigration attorney was a surveillance video from a casino, where he accepted $20,000 from an informant for the federal government. According to the prosecutor, the former immigration attorney was arrested only minutes after the video was shot. The man would pose as an influential immigration official or even a judge, offering to help illegal immigrants for money. On one occasion he even appeared in court without authorization, helping a women avoid deportation by having her case dismissed. He did so by telling the immigration judge that the woman had been helping the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in other cases. In return the woman’s mother paid the former immigration attorney over $7,000, in addition to working for free as his housekeeper. The wife has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, and will be sentenced later this year.