It\u2019s no secret that I am interested in disinformation about migrants. I\u2019ve 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\u2019ve 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?<\/p>\n
When interviewing them about \u201cdisinformation targeting migrants,\u201d the subjects sometimes asked for a clarification: do I mean political disinformation spread by people like MAGA for political gain, or do I mean \u201cfor-profit\u201d disinformation spread by scammers to trick migrants into paying them. I always clarified I meant the former, but those questions made me curious\u2026 what is the world of migrant scammers like? Who are these scammers? What do the scams look like? How are they spread? Why aren\u2019t the scammers being held accountable?<\/p>\n
In my few conversations about these scams, what I\u2019ve heard is extremely disheartening. People posing to be much-needed pro-bono asylum lawyers ask for money upfront after \u201ctaking their case,\u201d and disappear never to be heard from the migrants again. And the migrants don\u2019t have the means to hold these so-called lawyers accountable because they either don\u2019t have the money, don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
There hasn\u2019t been much news coverage about this. CBS News New York covered<\/a> 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<\/a>. But from my few conversations about this, the problem is much more widespread.<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 to see them in action. Perhaps the dream scenario for me (as someone who is not Hispanic and doesn\u2019t speak Spanish) is to have a migrant secretly record meeting a scammer to hear their tactics. New York is a one-party consent state \u2013 I assume this would be legal? I\u2019d love to interview one (maybe some actually convicted), but I don\u2019t know how possible that is. Perhaps I can take a page out of Taub\u2019s book and use transcripts from indictments involving scammers?<\/p>\n 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\u2019t turn to authorities to take care of this, then it is up to journalists to help them fight back \u2013 to correct this injustice and address the corruption.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s no secret that I am interested in disinformation about migrants. I\u2019ve 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\u2019ve interviewed disinformation experts and people with firsthand experience, all to<\/p>\n