A mere eight days after El Diario/La Prensa exposed an immigration scam involving a Plainfield Salvation Army church pastor, Tito Sotelo, the church announced yesterday his termination from his job.
A press release sent out by the New Jersey Division of the Salvation Army stated: "In response to articles published in El Diario/La Prensa with reference to Tito Sotelo, the Salvation Army, New Jersey Division has investigated the alleged charges and has decided to relieve Sotelo of his duties."
The communique also added, "The New Jersey Division of the Salvation Army is disposed to cooperate fully in any investigation undertaken by the authorities in this case." Citing the delicate nature of the subject, Tricia Pellegrini of the Salvation Army's Communications Office refused to comment further about the matter.
The articles published in El Diario/La Prensa on April 28 and 29 reported the testimony of more than 25 persons who had been cheated and decided to make their accusations public. All reported that Sotelo had promised them, in return for $4,000 to provide them with permanent residency papers for the United States. He would do this through a a fellow pastor, who supposedly was a lawyer with connections at the immigration office.
After the articles were published, this newspaper received numerous calls from residents of several areas in New Jersey and New York, who claimed to have been conned by Sotelo.
According to Ramón Soledad, one of the victims, "Sotelo's lucrative business began in early 2004 when the pastor, in the middle of a religious service he was conducting at the Wachtung Avenue Church in Plainfield, New Jersey, offered 'miracle papers' to undocumented immigrants in exchange for $4,000."
"As the first victims, who thought we'd finally found the solution to our immigration status, we traveled to West Palm Beach, Florida, where we spoke with Denise Gallo, who identified herself as the assistant to the supposed lawyer, Oscar Alberto Ruiz, who assured us the forms were legal."
The number of applicants grew so large that it was no longer necessary for them to travel to Florida. Each week it was Gallo who met with them in Sotelo's apartment. Ruiz never traveled to New Jersey and always had one or another excuse justifying his absence.
What the skeptical people did not know was that Ruiz could not leave the state of Florida, being free on bond after being charged in February 2003 with grand larceny and organized fraud involving between $20,000 to $50,000 – he had arrived at an agreement with the Miami-Dade District Atorney's office the previous March, to make restitution of an amount of money as yet undetermined, and 10 years of conditional liberty.
Soledad, one of those who denounced Sotelo, on learning of his firing by the Salvation Army, said in a tone of voice between happy and worried that, "It seems good to me that they're not going to let him use the church any more to con the undocumented parishoners, but it also worries me that now he could escape back to his country, Peru, where I've heard he has a lot of property."
We could not locate Sotelo for comment on his termination by the institution that had employed him.
Miracle processes
Pastor Sotelo's procedure was systematic, according to all the victims:
* He publicized an "express" way to obtain papers during religious services.
* He made appointments with his clients at his West End Avenue apartment, where they had to bring him a down payment of a $1,000 in cash, and their passports.
* Two or three days later, the clients had to bring the remaining $3,000, and had the privilege of an interview with Denise Gallo, who identified herself as the secretary of the so-called immigration lawyer Oscar Alberto Ruiz, the latter two both residents of Florida.
* None of the people from New Jersey could speak personally with Ruiz, and their interviews with him were by way of the telephone.
* Sotelo, at the church, provided a paper that came to be known as "the torch," the logo on its letterhead. The paper was actually nothing more than a simple receipt provided by the CIS (Citizen and Immigration Services) to persons who fill out an application.
* The petition presented [by Sotelo and his associates] was based on an employment contract in which the petitioners were named as their own employers, and which could have been rejected as incomplete at any point in the process, according to experts.
