Social Worker shake down is unethical, yet those who should know better don’t act better. For quite some time, I have called for ethical training for government employees. Most specifically I advocate ethical training for those who have direct interaction with people in great need. Such employees include social workers, veterans and public assistance administrators, and medical 
professionals. Why that group in particular? Because whenever a person is vulnerable, I want to make sure that those dealing with such individuals are highly ethical. If they are not, there is the opportunity for unethical behavior.
I must admit that from time to time I am asked if such training is a need, or if it is something I am making up to get more “business.” Leslie Rubero Padilla will serve as an Exhibit ‘A’ in this discussion. His story is one of a Social Worker Shake Down.
In an article written for Fox News Latino (November 16, 2015) entitled: “Miami social worker gets 18 months for extorting families of unaccompanied minors,” we hear the story of a social worker who took advantage of desperate situation.
Migrant Crisis and the Opportunity to do harm
The world is in a tragic humanitarian crisis, of that we can all agree. Yes, I know full-well the political debates but for now let us just imagine we are talking about a member of our family, not someone else.
Of the immigrant crises, the unaccompanied minors from Central America who have poured into our country, have overwhelmed our facilities in Arizona and New Mexico. The children have not come with their parents, but many do have relatives in this country. For the most part, these relatives are hardly wealthy individuals.
Yet, what would you do if you received a call from a Miami-based social services agency telling you a child, a family member, had crossed into U.S. territory and was being held in a detention facility? Under normal circumstances, you would be required to pay for airfare from the holding areas to the airport nearest to your home. Fair enough, and again I am not turning this discussion political, but ethical, however suppose the social worker tried to shake you down for more money to line her pockets?
In this case, Rubero pocketed more than $11,000:
“According to the Miami Herald, Rubero extorted more than $11,000 from families by insisting they had to send her additional money or the reunification of the children would be delayed, or they would even be deported back to their native country…Rubero shook down the families of 18 unaccompanied minors for extra payments beyond transportation or escort costs, ranging from $200 to $1,500 between November 2014 and March 2015.”
Rubero worked for “His House Children’s Home,” an agency that worked with the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She ultimately got caught because one of her victims contacted an ethical social worker in her home state and wondered if she was being victimized. She was.
Rubero had no history of criminal behavior before she decided to take advantage of the situation, and that is one of the mitigating factors in keeping the 27 year-old social worker from being sentenced to longer than 18 months. The social worker is returning all of the money she stole to the families who were bribed.
What made the case especially troubling, was that Rubero assumed that the families she cheated would not have the “courage” or the where-withal to challenge the bribe. She saw an opportunity to make money off of these lower-income families, and she took it.
How often do these kinds of behaviors occur? It is difficult to say. Individuals who are very vulnerable are often too afraid and too powerless to fight powerful authority figures. No matter how you may politically feel about the immigration crisis, ethically we have to admit that no one has the right to take advantage of other human beings in that manner.
Had Leslie Rubero Padilla the opportunity to sit in a training on ethics perhaps, just perhaps, she might have thought twice about stealing money from the families she served. She needed to know that every choice has a consequence.
In this case, her consequence is a jail sentence, a loss of status and the shame of robbing among the poorest of our society. In no way, is $11,000 or even $110,000 worth such shame. There is no excuse for Padilla’s actions which is no more than a Social Worker shake down.
YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!
My estranged husband and I have already dish out over twenty thousand dollars for participating in DCF intricate collecting bargaining by targeting middle income families. I’m a witness to being swindle by a large group of com artist with a twisted tongue of false frogs. It began at Family Court with a Jamaican intake worker Barbra. Big mistake she persuaded me to call DCF. I only came to file a restraining order. Well they review our income, and yank my children from my home within 48 hours. Fourteen months I have suffer emotional trauma fromna case manager who stated, I’m unfit mom, I have a mental instability. In the past 14 months, I nerve met this case manager only twice. She never had any correspondence or meetings. All I heard from her was don’t call me, screaming. She told the judge I didn’t pay , yes, pay yet my bank records tell another story, especially when its cash. Then she add more classes to make it longer to he reunited with my children. A home study was order in August, and guess what it’s December. A ten minute drive from downtown FRC office to the residence , I reside in. I believe the delay is to set up an arrest because they made a big error. You see I never have been a prostitute, nor deal with drugs, or any intake of any substance. I sure as never abuse my children. This case manager is looking for an excuse to set up an arrest. I just file for a restraining order to complaint my fear of my husband having unpredictable outbursts, explosions and all of a sudden has grown a deep fond love for guns. Plus he’s Cuban , american, and a dark Hatienne girl with a last name Diaz, hint, hint.