Ravi Ragbir: No immigrant hero

Activists who want to replace our unjust, convoluted immigration system with something better should be careful about how they use the difficult case of Ravi Ragbir as a guide for how to change American laws. The unpleasant truth — which the activist’s friends frequently ignore, distort or simply dissemble about — is that Ragbir, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, committed serious crimes in the 1990s that led to a prison sentence and constitute the main reason he is facing deportation.

I feel for Ragbir. By all accounts he is knowledgeable, charismatic and leading a necessary fight to bring sense and compassion to our immigration system.

And like most New Yorkers, I strongly favor the granting of permanent legal status for Dreamers, the undocumented residents who were brought here as children.

But Ragbir’s case is very different. In 1994, as an adult, he secured a coveted green card, making him a permanent resident with the right to work. In short order, while working at Household Finance Corp. (which was later acquired by HSBC Bank), he joined a criminal ring that used the stolen identities of unsuspecting people to generate fraudulent mortgage loans, and was arrested in the summer of 1999.

In a signed confession, Ragbir said of the man who recruited him: “He told me that he wanted me to do business with him through my company (HFC) and set up real estate loans for people that he would send to me as referrals. He told me that he wanted to get the money from the loans and would send people to me to use false names and information and offered to me one point of each loan. One point is onepercent of the dollar amount of each loan. I told him that I would do it for him.”

Ragbir also said of his partner in crime (who later pleaded guilty): “He is the guy that was running the whole scheme through me at my job . . . between December 1998 and now. He has organized the filing of $1.5 million worth of fraudulent loans by using me to process the loans through Household Finance and allow others to assume false identities to apply for the loans.”

Ragbir’s supporters often downplay or mischaracterize these crimes, for which he spent three years in federal prison. Ragbir stipulated that the scheme ripped HFC off for between $300,000 and $500,000.

But the fraud didn’t just affect a faceless corporation: It was based on identity fraud, which wreaks havoc on the lives of unsuspecting victims.

One of the persons ripped off in the scheme, Mary Mays, died before Ragbir went to trial. Another victim, Muzethel Childs, testified that she had never visited HFC or applied for a loan, but discovered her identity was used to generate a bogus mortgage. Ditto for Sudie Smith, whose stolen identity was part of the case against Ragbir.

One wishes that the activists passionately defending Ragbir would take the time to find the families of Mays, Childs and Smith — who, for all we know, were hardworking immigrants trying to make it in America. I wonder if they have ever been made whole financially.

And Mayor de Blasio was being inaccurate — or too cute by half — when he wrote a letter to the regional director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement requesting that Ragbir be granted long-term legal residency in the U.S.

“In his more than 20 years as a lawful permanent resident in the United States, Mr. Ragbir has made significant contributions to the city’s civic life,” the mayor wrote. That span includes the time Ragbir was part of the stolen ID/mortgage fraud ring, as well as the years he spent in prison.

As is his right, Ragbir is exploring every conceivable legal and political angle to remain in the U.S. But the legal fight isn’t going well; his conviction was upheld on appeal.

And the latest lawsuit, filed on behalf of Ragbir and other activists, charges they are being unfairly targeted because of their advocacy on behalf of undocumented immigrants. But even that lawsuit acknowledges on page 6 that “plaintiffs here do not challenge underlying orders of removal.”

That’s an acknowledgment that Ragbir has already had his day in court, and that the removal order will likely remain in place. Here’s hoping more immigration activists will step up to complete his mission.