Feds shut down bizarre immigration fraud that involved staged armed robberies

Federal authorities say they have broken a fiendish and ingenious fraud ring that was staging armed robberies at convenience stores so the supposed victims, who were illegal immigrants, could file applications with the Homeland Security Department to stay in the country on victim visas.

The fraudsters charged $10,000 per robbery and gave the store owners a heads-up and a cut of the money to use their businesses in the scam.

The supposed victims would then report the crimes to the police and file paperwork to be deemed part of the investigation. They would use that paperwork to file applications with Homeland Security for the U visa, which shields against deportation and earns the right to work in the U.S. legally.

“This is a new level of immigration fraud,” said Emilio Gonzalez, former director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The FBI has linked eight robberies to the scammers and is investigating 11 others across the eastern U.S. The confirmed robberies include a Subway sandwich shop in Kentucky, a Pennsylvania smoke shop and three Massachusetts liquor stores.

In seven of the eight known cases, schemers asked local police to certify them as victims for purposes of the U visa. In four of the robberies, a supposed victim had already filed the paperwork with USCIS, an FBI agent said in court documents.

Agents arrested Rambhai Patel, 36, and Balwinder Singh, 39, on charges of conspiracy to commit visa fraud. Court documents suggest the involvement of others, including a man the FBI said performed one of the robberies with a fake gun and has since become a cooperating witness.

Experts said the scam plays on the soft underbelly of the immigration system, which is generous with its grants of legal status and scant in its ability to sniff out fraud.

The U visa was set up as a way for authorities to keep illegal immigrants and other temporary visitors in the U.S. to help investigate or prosecute serious crimes. A police department must fill out a form certifying that the visitor is a victim and is being helpful in pursuing the case.

In reality, many departments now fear lawsuits and rubber-stamp certifications, creating a massive window for fraud.

Mr. Gonzalez, who ran USCIS in the Bush administration, figures as many as 25% of U visa applications may be bogus because the fraud is so successful.

“if you’re going to fake a stickup at the 7-Eleven to give somebody a U visa, why do you do it? Because it works,” he said. “This administration needs to take immigration fraud seriously. Prosecute to the full extent of the law.”

Robert Law, who served as policy chief at USCIS in the Trump administration, agreed that fraud is “rampant” in the U visa program and said the Biden administration has effectively encouraged bogus filings.

“I understand that the majority of pending U visa applications are now from males and, too often, it’s a confirmed gang member who claims to be a crime victim of the rival gang,” he said. “The Biden administration has exempted from removal any illegal alien who simply applies for a U visa, and are issuing work permits to those with pending claims.”

The FBI was tipped to the scam after connecting three robberies in Massachusetts last year. Agents found records showing Mr. Patel, the chief suspect, had been talking with some of the purported victims before and after the crimes.

Agents also figured out that one of the men flown in to conduct the robbery paid more for his plane ticket than he stole from the store.

In October, agents learned that one of the men was traveling from New York to Worcester, Massachusetts, and connected him to a vehicle that seemed to be casing a liquor store.

Someone robbed the store the next day, and state police swooped in and stopped the suspicious vehicle.

Police arrested Patel and another man whom the FBI said was turned into a confidential witness. That man has been cooperating, sharing phone texts between himself and Mr. Patel and allowing agents to record a conversation with Mr. Patel and an undercover FBI employee posing as someone interested in helping with the scheme.

“Just show the gun, that’s it,” Mr. Patel told the undercover agent, according to a transcript of the call.

Brad Bailey, an attorney for Mr. Patel, said his client will plead not guilty and they will mount “a vigorous defense.”

An attorney for Mr. Singh didn’t respond to an inquiry for this report.

The scam is so striking because the men went through with the robberies, authorities say.

Fraudsters usually just fabricate crimes.

The Eden Prairie Police Department in Minnesota grew suspicious after finding a pattern of reports of Somali men approaching and attacking Hispanic people from behind. A common link was Yuridia Hernandez Linares, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who first reported an armed robbery by Somali men in 2015.

She applied for a U visa and then went to work selling her how-to guide to others.

She charged $2,000 for “consulting services,” which included helping concoct similar stories and advising the use of two “victims” so they could corroborate each other’s story. She even slashed the supposed victims with box cutters, after numbing their skin with a Lidocaine injection, so they could show real injuries.

Ms. Linares said she learned the scam from someone else and was paying it forward.

She was sentenced to time served, though USCIS canceled her U visa petition after the subsequent frauds came to light. At the time of her sentencing in 2020, her attorney said she expected to be deported.

The U visa has become incredibly popular, with demand far outstripping the 10,000 slots allotted annually.

In fiscal year 2023, USCIS received more than 31,000 primary applications from purported victims and nearly 22,000 other petitions from relatives of U visa applicants.

As of Sept. 30, nearly 345,000 people were waiting in the U visa backlog. More than 207,000 of them were primary petitioners. The 10,000-cap figure on those primary petitioners means a 20-year glut.

In response to questions from The Times, USCIS referred a reporter back to the Justice Department’s press release on the case, though the agency insisted it has “a robust set of controls in place to mitigate risks of fraud.”

The Biden administration made the U visa program more lenient in 2021 by allowing those in the backlog to be eligible for work permits earlier. Someone who files a claim, gives fingerprints and has been judged to have applied in good faith can be issued a work permit, which serves as a shield against deportation and a chance to embed more deeply in communities.

Nearly 80% of principal applications filed in 2023 were deemed bona fide.

The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general audited the U visa program and issued a scathing report in 2022 questioning whether the program was meeting its goal of helping authorities pursue investigations against criminals.

USCIS couldn’t say whether the victims helped police, nor did the agency track outcomes of fraud cases to make sure those who filed bogus cases were prosecuted.

The audit also confirmed significant levels of fraud. Some immigrants forged police certifications or altered authentic certifications to try to advance their cases by making the crimes seem more severe.