Fake Immigration Courts Take Advantage of Immigrants Desperate for Answers

By Rommel H. Ojeda, DOCUMENTED | Photo Courtesy of Envision Freedom Fund

Immigrants seeking legal help online to protect themselves from Trump’s deportation plans are increasingly falling prey to costly scams.

The day of his final immigration hearing, N., who asked Documented to use only his first initial due to fear of retaliation, was ecstatic. He joined the virtual session via a private link sent by his lawyer, dressed in a button-down shirt to look presentable for what seemed to resemble a normal court. 

On screen, the judge, wearing a black gown and sitting next to an American flag, told him his deportation would be pardoned — and that he would be eligible to apply for a green card. 

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N. described his emotions at that moment: “It makes you happy because it’s been a while since you have seen your family. And you become illusioned that the moment [of legalization] will arrive and that you will hug them.” 

But the pardon he received that day was fake, part of an intricate scheme by a group of scammers who had N. attend fake immigration court hearings and ICE check-ins for six long months. 

The 31-year-old asylum seeker’s story is part of a broader trend of immigrants falling victim to elaborate scams on social media platforms while seeking legal assistance to avoid deportation under President Trump’s most recent crackdown. In New York City alone, immigration-related scams rose by 27% last year, according to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), though advocates and lawmakers say the real number is likely much higher due to language barriers and underreporting. 

Beyond the financial toll, the scams can have devastating legal consequences for the victims. The fake lawyer had instructed N. to avoid his in-person hearing with the courts, as it would pose the risk of detention and told him that the online sessions they had scheduled would be safer. Missing your court hearing may result in being ordered deported “in absentia.”As a result, N. was ordered deported after missing his real court hearing.

N., who is from Honduras, was not completely unfamiliar with how the immigration courts worked. In fact, he had attended multiple virtual hearings when he was in detention after he arrived in the U.S. from Honduras in May 2021. He was released on bond in June 2021 and since then split his time living between New York and Georgia. In the summer of 2024, with the prospect of a second Trump presidency looming, he began looking for an affordable lawyer online, hoping to prevent a future deportation. 

He came across a group of alleged immigration lawyers on Facebook (we cannot divulge the name as there is a possible lawsuit), who asked him to contact them via WhatsApp. At the beginning, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary: they took his information, a copy of his passport and other documents and did an intake, including collecting his Alien number, an identifier the Department of  Homeland Security assigns to immigrants involved in the U.S. immigration system. 

They told him the total cost of representation would be $5,000, which he could pay in installments.

Between August and December 2024, N. attended what he thought were three different hearings online. He paid $3,500 for services including legal representation and filing form I-485, to apply for permanent residency with USCIS. In the first two meetings, N. said he met with an alleged officer from USCIS where he was asked about his job, if he had any family members in the U.S., and if he had any tattoos. The man wore a navy blue police-officer outfit, with the DHS emblems on the shoulders. Based on screenshots shared with Documented, the man sat in front of boxes labeled “denied,” “deported,” and had a U.S. flag in the frame. In one of them, a framed photo of Biden can be seen.

In the third meeting, a judge was present alongside N.’s lawyer. “It’s like a real thing. The judge introduces himself, he asks for my name, they ask the lawyer’s name and her license number. And then they start to issue the sentences,” N. explained. He said that during his last court hearing, he was told that his order of deportation had been pardoned and that he had to pay $900 to proceed with the next step. “I felt really happy, and I was in heaven,” N. said. 

He was told by the lawyer he had hired to pay $99 per page for a 22-page document, for a total amount of $2,178.  N. could not afford that on his salary working in construction, where he averaged $400 a week. He was told to pay within seven days to avoid losing the opportunity to adjust his status, he said. “The lawyer would send me messages to see if I had the money,” N. recalled. “It was for some authentication of papers at the consulate,” he said. 

‘Like an attorney’

N. reached out to Envision Freedom Fund— an organization assisting immigrants across the five boroughs, which had also helped him in the past— and got in touch with Rosa Santana, the executive director. “She asked me for more details and then when I told her that they are charging me $99 per page, she got concerned and told me, ‘No, this is a scam. Don’t send any more money,’” N. said. 

For Santana, the tactic that N. fell for is one she had come across from different clients, who often, like N., are looking for affordable or free legal assistance on social media platforms. Once they come across a profile, the scam artists move the conversation to WhatsApp or texting, she said.

In 2024, according to the DCWP, the number of immigration fraud cases increased from 36 in 2023 to 46 in 2024. While the number may not be significant in comparison to the more than 25,000 complaints the agency received, the figure of victims is anticipated to be higher as many immigrants do not report these incidents, Michael Lanza, a spokesperson for the DCWP, told Documented. 

“Earlier this year, DCWP completed a sweep of nearly 500 businesses suspected of providing immigration assistance services and issued more than 60 summonses,” Lanza said. 

Alpha A. Diallo, Co-Founder & Executive Director of the Pan-African Community Development Initiative, told Documented that he has also seen members of the African immigrant community also impacted by scammers who tell them that they are immigration lawyers. “When people are desperate, oftentimes, there are people waiting to take advantage of the situation which is what’s been happening,” Diallo said. 

He explained that immigrants tend to share the information of the fake lawyers that they are using with one another, without verifying the credentials, thinking they are real.  “People think, if I pay somebody money, they will take care of it,” Diallo emphasized. 

At an April 15 City Council meeting, nonprofits and community members shared similar stories about falling victim to immigration fraud. Like N., Christian— one of the victims who testified and did not share their last name—  claimed to have also encountered a fake immigration lawyer on Facebook, who instructed Christian how to make payments and then asked him to dress up for their court session online. 

“My attorney appeared virtually, and I remember the judge wearing a black robe […] And, the judge who spoke Spanish to me asked me, and told me that I had eight days to pay a little over $5,000,” Christian testified in Spanish. 

Alexa Avíles, chair of the immigration committee, said during the hearing that “unscrupulous actors prey upon this desperation, and immigrants can find themselves overcharged, lied to, and in some instances have their immigration cases irreparably damaged by fraudulent providers.” She added that Trump’s immigration agenda has isolated immigrants from reaching out to organizations or local agencies, and made them more vulnerable to these kinds of frauds. 

The DCWP encouraged immigrants to report these scams. “We take our role in protecting consumers – regardless of immigration status – seriously,” Lanza said.

Ordered deported

Since 2021, N. had been fighting a defensive asylum case at the courts. But after the alleged Facebook lawyer advised him to avoid attending his court hearing in person, he agreed, thinking the lawyer was looking out for him.  

The scheme, to N., seemed real and he did not question the veracity of the hearings. When he was told that he would be eligible for a green card, he did not want to get his hopes up, so he did not share the news with anyone, including his family.  

“I kept it [the immigration proceedings] reserved, just to myself. Because sometimes it could be successful and sometimes it could not,” N. said. He added that he recommended the fake lawyer to some of his friends who were also seeking asylum with the courts. 

When he found out that he had fallen for an immigration scam, he became anxious and stressed. “I had something like insomnia, and I felt guilt towards myself,” N. explained. But that disappointment was not the worst part. 

In his real case with the courts, the judge had ordered him deported in absentia, which automatically puts him in deportation proceedings. His new attorney is filing a motion to reopen on his behalf. 

“I would tell people to look for information with people that know more about how the immigration system works. Because sometimes we end up getting confused and end up with a noose around our neck,” N. said.