Deportation fears fuel surge in immigration scams, officials warn

For immigrants anxious about deportation, the very people they fear can become the easiest ones to trust. In New York and across the United States, scammers are exploiting that vulnerability by posing as immigration officials, lawyers and fixers, charging for free forms, steering people to fake websites and demanding money in threats that claim arrest or deportation is already on the way.

Odalys González Silvera, who has lived in New York for 30 years, said she had seen many kinds of pressure on immigrant communities, but the current climate has made fraud especially dangerous. That fear has grown in periods of intensified enforcement and anti-immigrant rhetoric, when many immigrants become less likely to call police, banks or legal aid and more likely to believe anyone who says they can help them stay in the country.

The Federal Trade Commission says common immigration scams include unauthorized people offering immigration services, fake government websites and businesses that charge for forms that are actually free. The agency has also warned about phone scams in which callers pretend to be from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and tell victims that their immigration status is being revoked, or that police are on the way, unless money is paid immediately. The FTC says the confusion surrounding immigration makes people easier targets and urges victims to report fraud.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says the immigration process is complex and that applicants, petitioners and requestors are at risk of scams or fraud. Both USCIS and the FTC say official immigration forms are free, and both warn that notarios are not authorized to provide immigration legal help in the United States. USCIS also offers multilingual anti-scam materials for refugees and recent immigrants, including handbooks and flyers meant to help people spot fraud before they lose money or put their cases at risk.

The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review runs a Fraud and Abuse Prevention Program that takes complaints about immigration fraud, scams and the unauthorized practice of immigration law. EOIR says complaints can come from judges, court staff, other agencies, private attorneys, people in removal proceedings and the public. Officials say that reporting remains one of the few safeguards that still works, especially for people who may be too frightened to ask for help until after the damage is done.