New York Criminal Lawyer Blog

A NYC Criminal Lawyer learned that a four-year old U.S. citizen was deported to Guatemala by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. The little girl was returning to Long Island with her grandfather from visiting relatives in Guatemala when their flight was diverted to Washington D.C.’s Dulles Airport for an unknown reason. While her grandfather did have, a valid work visa that allowed him to travel, customs officials noticed that the man had a prior illegal entry attempt that occurred in the 1990s. They immediately took him into custody.
It was at this point that it is believed that her grandfather went into a panic attack, and was taken to the hospital. All the while, the four-year old girl was detained for nearly a day at the airport without her parents having any knowledge as to either her or her grandfather’s whereabouts. They were still waiting for their flight to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), sources reported. By the time that her father realized what was going on, he contacted a border patrol agent and was advised of his limited choices. He was told that either he could allow the four-year old child to be detained in a juvenile facility in Virginia, or she and her grandfather could return to Guatemala. He opted for the later, as he feared that authorities would put her up for adoption.
Sources revealed to New York Criminal Lawyers that Customs and Border Protection officials had little comment on this matter, only to say that the parents are afforded the options of whether to pick up the child, allow the child to be turned over to a juvenile facility, or to return to the country they had just arrived. They further added that since the four-year old girl’s parents are undocumented that if they are caught that there are consequences to their actions and they will be detained. This is not considered to be Fraud and would not be deemed as fraud in The Bronx or Queens.
Regardless of anyone’s stance on immigration, legal or not, the fact that the child was born in the United States makes her an American citizen and there are many who are asking the question of how could an American citizen have been deported.

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Three family members have been arrested and been accused with visa fraud. The family run an immigration consulting business explains a New York City Criminal Lawyer. The family is accused of filing fake marriage and visa petitions. The foreigners who hired their services pad as much as $60,000 for the services.
The NYC Family Lawyer states that these crimes are very serious. The family members involved in the illegal activities could actually end up spending up to five years in prison. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement department detected the illegal activity and decided to investigate. Lawyers in The Bronx and Brooklyn encounter fraud cases such as this many times a year.
The members of the family managed to carry out the fraud by finding US citizens from low income backgrounds. They offered them $2,000 to marry clients so that they can obtain visas. These sham marriages served no purpose other than to allow people to apply for residence permits and visas.
The fees paid to the company were $15,000 for a work visa, up to $60,000 for a visa which was based on marrying a US citizen. The fees charged were able to be very high because what they were offering was completely illegal.
This was a very serious crime because it is important that the US immigration system is not for sale. It should not be possible for foreigners to fraudulently obtain visas to work and live in the USA. Paying people to marry foreigners is obviously a major abuse of the system.
The investigation into the case started towards the end of 2009 explains the NY Criminal Lawyer. They spotted that there were some similarities between different applications which were handled by the company. This was enough to raise concerns about the company as many of the same marriage and divorce certificates were the same ones used for different applications.
The company’s website mentions that it offers immigration services in a number of different areas of the country and the world. They also provide similar services in Georgia, New Jersey and even India. This means that shutting down this small business has probably had a big impact on immigration in lots of countries around the globe.

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Three members of a Yorba Linda, California family were arrested by immigration authorities on suspicion of visa fraud. They ran an immigration consulting business.
The authorities believe the family may have been filing fraudulent marriage and work visa petitions for a price – sometimes as high as $60,000, federal officials told New York Criminal Lawyers. If convicted, the suspects could spend five years in federal prison.
The three, a man, his wife, and their daughter, were all named in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court. Their immigration consulting business catered mostly to Indian nationals. The business was searched around the time of the arrest. Manhattan and Bronx Lawyers handle many fraud cases like these.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement explained to New York Criminal Lawyers the family is accused of enlisting U.S. citizens and paying them $2,000 to marry their clients. Officials say the family would pose couples for photos, then have them open joint bank accounts, so the marriage would look real. They would then file a fraudulent immigrant visa petition with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
They would charge several different fees, such as $15,000 for a work visa, and as much as $60,000 for a visa based upon marriage to a U.S. citizen, immigration officials told New York Criminal Lawyers.
“America’s immigration system is not for sale and those who think they can game the system for personal gain will find there’s a high price to pay,” said a special ICE agent. “Visa fraud is a serious crime. Not only does it undermine the integrity of our legal immigration process and penalize those who abide by the law, it also poses a significant security vulnerability.”
The family had been under investigation since September of 2009 when officers with the Fraud Detection and National Security Division of USCIS in Santa Ana, California began to notice a great deal in common between 21 visa petitions traced back to the consulting company. Sometimes, the applicants used the same marriage certificates, divorce certificates, witnesses, or even the same U.S. citizen spouses.
The consulting company claimed to offer immigration services in places other than California, such as Georgia, New Jersey, and India.

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