Salt Lake lawyer facing fraud charges ordered to remain in prison

SALT LAKE CITY — A federal magistrate judge ordered a Salt Lake lawyer Tuesday to remain in prison after he took an unauthorized trip to Mexico, a violation of the man's pre-trial release.

James Hector Alcala, who was indicted in July on charges of conspiracy and visa fraud, was released in August pending trial on the condition that he wear a GPS monitoring device, surrender his passport and not leave the state without permission. Alcala, along with seven others, has been accused of helping foreign nationals and Utah employers obtain visas through fraud using the Alcala Law Firm, which Alcala owns. The law firm itself was also charged in the indictment.

The law firm, which advertised itself specifically as an immigration law office, has been accused of illegally obtaining H-2B work visas for various Utah companies in order to gain a profit.

Among other things, investigators allege that the firm encouraged Mexican laborers to return to Mexico and lie about their planned employment and time in the United States to obtain more visas than were necessary to build up a visa "pool."

A status conference was held in Alcala's case amid allegations that Alcala had violated the terms of his release not only by taking an unauthorized trip to Mexico, but for also contacting a codefendant in the case. Alcala admitted going to Mexico but denied the allegation that he contacted a codefendant. His attorney, Ron Yengich, said Alcala made a number of efforts to obtain permission for the trip to Mexico.

However, prosecutor Scott Romney said there have been a number of issues with Alcala's release, including a GPS monitoring device that is "not responding, leading to some discussion it's been tampered with."

U.S. District Magistrate Judge David Nuffer said he had found Alcala, 41, to be a flight risk initially, but a manageable one.

"I intended to propose conditions to mitigate that risk," Nuffer said. "I had him surrender his passport in the naive view that would disable him from international travel … but I find he didn't make an attempt to contact (his supervising officer) about traveling to Mexico."

Nuffer ordered that Alcala remain in prison upon finding that "the risk cannot be managed."

Alcala faces maximum of up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge and a maximum of 10 years in prison for each of the 12 counts of visa fraud.

e-mail: emorgan@desnews.com