BALTIMORE, MD - A Sparrows Point man who had worked as an immigration officer in Baltimore was sentenced to 15 months in jail on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for Maryland.

John Theis, 40, of the unit block of Oyster Point, admitted to taking more than $15,000 from undocumented immigrants and impersonating a government officer. Theis had worked from January to September 2015 as an immigration services officer at the Department of Homeland Security's United States Citizenship & Immigration Services facility off Caton Avenue.

His job entailed evaluating immigration and citizenship cases and ruling whether to grant residency, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney. Theis accepted cash from undocumented immigrants in return for favorable rulings, his plea agreement said.

With another person, he started an immigration business in which he was a presenter at a program known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents. He wore clothes there that identified him as an immigration officer to get clients to pay him for help with their immigration paperwork. He did not notify his employer that he was doing any outside work, which was mandatory. In April 2015, Theis went on disability after falsifying he was unable to work, according to the U.S. Attorney, which stated he received more than $1,600 in disability pay that the judge ordered he pay back in restitution.

On September 29, 2015, Theis resigned from the government, and in October 2015 he went to Brazil, where he pretended he was a member of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) until he returned to the U.S. and was arrested in December 2016.



After serving 15 months in jail, Theis will be on supervised release for one year.