“I’m very nervous about this.”

Omar is texting his immigration lawyer in August 2019.

He needs to get his immigration status – he is seeking asylum – so that he can get married. It’s a complex system to navigate, and he needs to hurry. But his lawyer says he can help him.

His lawyer explains that the process includes a fee: a $2000 non-refundable fee to start the case, and another $3000 if the case is approved.

Omar is having money troubles, but he is determined. He is borrowing money from his family and friends so that get through the process and do it correctly. He produces $1500 and his lawyer gives him extra time to get the remaining $500.

“Look, there are immigration centers that have higher rates,” his lawyer texts.

“I know,” Omar replies.

The process takes months, and his lawyer often takes days or weeks to respond to him. On November 30, 2019, Omar texts, “I wanted to know what you have done because you have not said anything to me again.” His lawyer reassures him that the process is still ongoing.

They make an appointment for December 17. On December 16, Omar texts, “Hi, can you confirm what time we will see each other tomorrow and where?”

No response.

Omar texts again on December 22. Then on December 24. And again on December 30, January 3, and January 13.

On January 14, Omar asks, “Hey what’s wrong you’re not answering me.”

The lawyer stops responding to Omar altogether. But the thing is, he isn’t texting a lawyer at all. This whole time, he’s been scammed.

Omar is one of thousands of victims of what the Federal Trade Commission calls “immigration services” scams. Between 2019 and 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) counted over 3,800 reports of such scams. In many cases, the scammer poses as a lawyer who can help the migrant navigate the complex immigration legal system in the U.S. They infiltrate migrants’ WhatsApps, promising to earn them citizenship – for an up-front fee. Then, they take the migrants’ money, often thousands of dollars, and run.

“People say they are pro bono. They make an appointment, they see your case, and then they ask for money,” Eliana, a Colombian immigrant who has seen her fellow migrants get scammed, explained. “People start to get suspicious when they haven’t received any other calls or follow ups. Then they realize that they’re not lawyers and they were just using you.”

Reverend Juan Carlos Ruiz is the Pastor of the Good Shepherd Church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and is a strong advocate and aid for undocumented migrants – especially in becoming U.S. citizens. He has seen many of these scams from the people he cares for, and says the scammers often get off scot-free.

“There’s no accountability because migrants have no means to sue,” he said. “They’ve either spent their last time paying these so-called lawyers, have no knowledge of the legal system and their right to sue, or are terrified to report it in fear of exposing their undocumented status.”

This paralyzing scenario leaves the migrants with even less money than they already had – and still no guide through the U.S. migration legal system.

Amelia Frank-Vitale, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Princeton and an expert in US immigration and border policy, says that navigating the complex system without guidance is nearly impossible.

“There’s a lot of paperwork, and you have to file paperwork in a timely manner and in a very specific way,” she said. “The court can basically deny everything because you didn’t respond to a piece of mail. It’s a very involved process.”

“Arguing an asylum claim is very nuanced, and not having a real familiarity with U.S. law or international law, or the nuance of how the United States has interpreted asylum… it’s really difficult to win a case if you don’t have a very good attorney,” she explained.

Community organizations like the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) in Washington, D.C. hold programs to help migrants identify scams like immigration lawyer scams, according to program assistant George Taboada.

“That’s really important for newcomers who come to the United States, who are not only susceptible to that kind of disinformation, but also they’re coming to a new country with a different political environment,” Taboada said. “They’re very susceptible to new information, because they don’t really know much about the United States’s political culture.”

The Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Justice (DOJ) and the FTC announced in 2011 a national effort to combat these scams. In the first year of that continuing effort, the Department of Justice and other partners saw convictions of up to eight years in prison and the restitution of over $1.8 million – and that’s just on the federal level.

In Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for example, authorities are still looking for two people who they believe scammed immigrants out of thousands of dollars while posing as immigration lawyers. They targeted individuals at the town’s United Blend Community Center, according to the Center’s director and founder Elizabeth Perez.

Perez told Fox56 that she trusted the two based on their seeming kindness and genuineness, but noticed that not much progress had been made on the cases they were supposingly working on.

“You have these families, they work so hard, some are working two jobs,” she told Fox56. “You have people that borrowed money and are paying five percent of interest on the loans and are still paying. They haven’t seen their family for years and you’re going to come and do this.”

Dozens of cases have been filed in the state of New York, where the Immigrant Assistance Service Enforcement Act is specifically designed to prevent and address these scams. The law, enacted in 2014, defines immigration services fraud in the first degree as the “intent to defraud another person seeking immigrant assistance services from such person… with intent to obtain property from such other person by false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises, and thereby wrongfully obtains such property with a value in excess of one thousand dollars.”

This law has stopped numerous scams, including the one that targeted Omar. Another scam was allegedly carried out by Windella Wells and the Adilah Dibba Corporation, who face a 44 count indictment, including eight counts of immigration assistance services fraud in the first degree. According to the Bronx County District Attorney’s office, Wells “defraud[ed] ten people out of $73,000 by promising to improve their immigration status.”

Stacey Richman, Wells’s attorney, says that discovery is still ongoing and that more details will come then.

“I don’t believe my client did anything wrong or believed she was doing anything wrong,” she said. “She didn’t do anything maliciously.”

All ten victims declined to comment.

Omar first texted Pablo Ortega Cuenca in December 2016.

“Are you a lawyer,” Omar asked Pablo.

“Yes,” Pablo replied.

“Oh it shows in your photo,” Omar realized.

But later, Pablo’s story changed.

Omar texted him, “I am an illegal immigrant and since you told me that you are a lawyer in the area, I wanted to know if I can go to a consultation with a yoke.”

“I work in the Spanish consulate,” Pablo responded.

“Ohh sorry”

“But I can help you,” Pablo claimed. “Because I also do extra cases.”

But Pablo took Omar’s money and ghosted him.

Pablo was arrested on January 10, 2024 on two counts of immigrant assistance services, two counts of 3rd degree grand larceny, and one count of scheme to defraud.

He pled guilty on June 12 to petit larceny and sentenced to time served.