With 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country, the need for comprehensive immigration reform is not going away.
In the meantime, however, there are untold casualties who are suffering in ways that few are discussing. Our nation's refusal to make immigration reform a priority has created the perfect storm for a silent problem to fester: immigration scams. Each year, undocumented immigrants are targeted, conned, and exploited by ruthless scam artists who promise the American dream but deliver only despair and financial ruin.
It has become such a persistent and growing problem that the federal government has created a database with over 6 million immigration fraud complaints, and for the first time last year created a joint task force to fight the scourge of "notario fraud" through a collaboration between the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. But enforcement efforts at the state and federal level can reach only the tiniest tip of the iceberg.
The story of Maria Gutierrez Aragon illustrates the ugly reality of what is happening every day. Maria is an indigenous Mexican woman from Oaxaca who has been in the United States for over 20 years, working at a dry cleaner and washing dishes at a restaurant. After years of abuse by her husband, Maria said enough is enough and reported the violence to the authorities.
As a victim of domestic violence, Maria is eligible for immigration relief under the U visa program that is intended to protect victims of crime. Taking advantage of her vulnerable situation, a family friend approached her and offered to help her. This "friend" told her that he would act as her personal representative, and that he would work with an immigration law firm to file a visa application on her behalf.
None of it turned out to be true. There was no immigration case, and the man eventually took $80,000 from her over nearly a decade.
How could it go on so long? To make this deception credible, the alleged scam artist forged numerous letters and documents from various government agencies and law firms threatening her with deportation or arrest if she told anybody about what was happening. Maria worked 14-hour days and borrowed large sums from family members to meet his ever growing demands.
Adding to this scheme of extortion, the "friend" coordinated a lengthy series of intimidating phone calls from third parties - all of which threatened deportation or incarceration if she failed to comply with the demands.
Unlike the vast majority of victims, Maria's story has a happy ending. Working with Public Counsel in Los Angeles, she now has an immigration case pending, and the Los Angeles District Attorney has filed criminal charges for grand theft against the alleged perpetrator. Maria talked about her ordeal to Univision.
Unfortunately, arrests like these are rare. That's what the federal task force on notario fraud is meant to help change. Until that happens, here are some steps you can take to avoid becoming a victim:
While America debates the need for immigration reform, rampant fraud committed against immigrants is a hidden shame that affects millions of people. Maria's story shows there is something we can do to enforce our nation's promise of fairness -- not as citizens, legal permanent residents and undocumented people, but together.
The best and most direct way to eliminate the breeding ground for these immigration scams is to pass comprehensive immigration reform and put our brothers and sisters on the path to citizenship. It's time for our nation to have the courage of Maria and say enough is enough.
Follow Hernan Vera on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@PublicCounsel
Your work is awesome.
Thank you for sharing this story!
So if she had not broke the law she would still have her money? I mean one criminal robbing another has been going on for as long as there have been people.
It did make it a priority, in 1986, how's that working out? Immigration scams, when you're outside the law many things happen to you. When people set out to buy drugs they are often ripped off. When you break the law your problems just snowball.
If these people were to remain in the country of their birth, they would not have this problem. Their need for amnesty will not go away, what about their need to improve their countries, is that never going to go away too or was it never there? That's why they have problems.
Not to mention she was scammed by a family 'friend', perhaps a fellow countryman, who is probably here illegally as well, hard to say as they do not reveal much about him. But to say that "the best and most direct way to eliminate the breeding ground for these immigration scams is to pass comprehensive immigration reform and put our brothers and sisters on the path to citizenship" for that very reason is lame. There are millions of legal Americans who are victims of all sorts of scams (the elderly being one of the highest groups), so why do we have to make these people citizens based on that reasoning alone. Not only is it lame reasoning but it may also, in the process, grant citizenship to the scammers as well, so why should we reward law breakers of any sort? I know she is afforded due process of law under our Constitution, but once her fraud case is resolved, she should be deported.
The answer to all of these scams is not to legalize the scammed illegal aliens, it is to get them deported and dry up all these markets.
The best way to eliminate these immigration scams is NOT "comprehensive immigration reform" because amnesty just begets more illegal aliens and more exploiters of them. It solves nothing and just perpetuates the problem. The best way to reduce these immigration scams is a deterrent policy which will lead to much fewer aliens to be scammed.
As an attorney, why don't you show some respect for our immigration law? I agree "enough is enough": we have more than enough people in the U.S. Your simplistic call for amnesty after amnesty is no solution. Aside from making a mockery or our law and sovereignty, we can't just look the other way at every illegal alien because high legal and illegal immigration will put us on a path to 800+ million population by century's end (see Census Bureau projections). Your way would probably get us to a billion quicker than that.
"a family friend approached her"
They tend to trust family and friends more than they would law enforcement or US public agencies and trust what Unvision and other Spanish media tell them. That is where the message needs to be and it will require the help of Mexico to educate Spanish speaking people about scams.
As for new rights and laws to help people who didn't think our laws mattered too much when they came here, none are needed. They still need to go back to the nations they came from, but America is better than to allow them to get robbed on the way out.
That's our neighbor's gig.
Later, Mexico had a European trained army much larger than the US which had no standing army. The Mexican elite were chomping at the bit to start the war that became the War of Mexican Cession. They thought they were going to win and get back Texas and take Louisiana as well. It didn't work out they way.