South Florida Woman Indicted For Immigration Scheme

There can be many steps involved in seeking documented immigration status in the United States. From obtaining an employment, fiancé or family visa to obtaining permanent residency and citizenship. As with any important and complicated process, Florida immigration attorneys know that schemes to defraud people of their money can emerge in the realm if immigration.

Federal officials say three women have been indicted for falsely representing themselves as immigration officials, including a south Florida woman. The women reportedly preyed on legal permanent residents as well as undocumented workers. The women reportedly offered to speed up the immigration process for people for fees ranging from $5000 to $18,000.

The women are accused of impersonating federal immigration officers, employees or immigration judges. They are accused of falsely representing themselves as federal immigration officials to induce clients to pay the fees, although the women were not capable of providing any service in exchange for the fee.

Tere Silva, a resident agent in charge of the Office of Professional Responsibility for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Juan Puerto Rico says that some unscrupulous people offer “to provide immigration services, including ways to avoid the established channels for adjusting one’s immigration status.”

Silva says that other schemes that people encounter related to immigration include “offers to provide false and forged identity documents, even threats and false impersonation of immigration officials.”

The three women were indicted in a ten count complaint for offenses such as conspiracy to impersonate a federal officer, aiding and abetting and harboring illegal aliens.

Source: WPTV, “ICE puts South Florida woman on ice,” 17 Nov 2010