It’s no secret that I am interested in disinformation about migrants. I’ve spent the semester (and my thesis) working on political disinformation about migrants, writing pieces about how disinformation spread by politicians have hurt migrant and non-migrant communities in Springfield, Ohio and Charleroi, Pennsylvania. I’ve interviewed disinformation experts and people with firsthand experience, all to answer the questions: why does disinformation about migrants spread, and how does it affect them and their communities?

When interviewing them about “disinformation targeting migrants,” the subjects sometimes asked for a clarification: do I mean political disinformation spread by people like MAGA for political gain, or do I mean “for-profit” disinformation spread by scammers to trick migrants into paying them. I always clarified I meant the former, but those questions made me curious… what is the world of migrant scammers like? Who are these scammers? What do the scams look like? How are they spread? Why aren’t the scammers being held accountable?

In my few conversations about these scams, what I’ve heard is extremely disheartening. People posing to be much-needed pro-bono asylum lawyers ask for money upfront after “taking their case,” and disappear never to be heard from the migrants again. And the migrants don’t have the means to hold these so-called lawyers accountable because they either don’t have the money, don’t understand the legal system, are afraid of getting in trouble with the immigration system, or a combination of these factors. And so, many times these scammers get away with it.

There hasn’t been much news coverage about this. CBS News New York covered it in a brief article when DA Alvin Bragg discussed it after indicted one scammer back in January. More scams have been investigated in other states like Colorado. But from my few conversations about this, the problem is much more widespread.

Ideally, I would speak to migrants who were scammed about their experience with scammers. I would also speak to advocates like Rev. Juan Carlos Ruiz and CARECEN in D.C. who help migrants navigate their arrival and avoid scams. But most of all, I would love to actually meet the scammers – to see them in action. Perhaps the dream scenario for me (as someone who is not Hispanic and doesn’t speak Spanish) is to have a migrant secretly record meeting a scammer to hear their tactics. New York is a one-party consent state – I assume this would be legal? I’d love to interview one (maybe some actually convicted), but I don’t know how possible that is. Perhaps I can take a page out of Taub’s book and use transcripts from indictments involving scammers?

Scams targeting migrants is an important issue, a story of people taking advantage of those with little to no power to fight back. And if they can’t turn to authorities to take care of this, then it is up to journalists to help them fight back – to correct this injustice and address the corruption.

Alternatively, another story idea I have is to answer why more Hispanic voters voted for Trump in 2024 than they ever have. But that question was somewhat easily answered by various people we talked to in New York, so maybe not the best story idea.