Mexican Consulate official accused of selling work permits

HOUSTON – An employee at the Mexican Consulate in Houston is accused in a lawsuit of offering U.S. work permits for sale.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the lawsuit filed earlier this month in Harris County accuses a consulate employee, Fidencio Navarrete Peralta, of accepting $10,000 for two work permits but never delivering them. Navarrete’s boss at the consulate, Consul General Oscar Rodriguez Cabrera, also is named as a defendant.

Xochitl Leticia Aguilar seeks return of the $10,000 and other compensation of $200,000. She says her American citizen daughter was hoping to obtain a work permit for her Mexican husband and a friend, but that they received only a single consul ID card.

A consulate spokesman had no comment for the newspaper about the lawsuit and could not be reached Wednesday.

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Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com