NEW YORK (CMC):

New York police have arrested a Guyana-born United States federal immigration official for demanding sex from a Col****ian woman in exchange for a green card.

Prosecutors in Queens said last Friday that Isaac R. Baichu, 46, was recorded demanding sex from the unidentified young woman, and will be prosecuted on corruption charges.

Immigration officials said Baichu handled about 8,000 green card applications during his three years as an adjudicator in the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services - part of the federal Department of Homeland Security.

Prosecutors said he pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanour charges of coercing the young woman to perform oral sex, and of promising to help her secure immigration papers in exchange for further sexual favours. If convicted, he will face up to seven years in prison.

Case under review

An immigration spokesman said Baichu has been suspended without pay, and the inspector general of Homeland Security is reviewing his other cases.

Prosecutors, who say they recorded a meeting between Baichu and the woman on March 11, at which he made similar demands for sex, urged any other victims to come forward.

Money, not sex, is the more common currency of corruption in immigration, officials said.

The young woman in Queens, whose name is being withheld because the authorities consider her the victim of a sex crime, did not even tell her husband what had happened, officials said.

They said she came to the United States on a tourist visa in 2004 and overstayed.