During a city council hearing, immigrants and their advocates shared stories of fraud, much of which is conducted over social media.

Christian, who did not give his last name for fear of being targeted by the federal government, told a New York City Council hearing Tuesday about how he was scammed by immigration fraudsters. (Screenshot from NY City Council hearing webcast)

During a New York City Council hearing about immigration services fraud on Tuesday, one asylum seeker testified about how he had been tricked by someone who claimed to be his attorney. 

“I was desperate to find someone to help me file for asylum,” said Christian through an English interpreter during a joint hearing of the council’s immigration and consumer and worker protection committees. (Christian, along with other immigrants who testified, provided only his first name to the council for fear of retaliation from federal government agencies.)

The person who had posed as his lawyer, he said, not only charged him money — a common practice among people who defraud immigrants — but also forged paperwork, like notices to appear, and even set up a fake court hearing through Google Meet.

“My attorney told me to dress formally for the virtual court hearing,” Christian said.

On the day of the virtual hearing, he said, a fake judge appeared, wearing a black robe. Fortunately for Christian, he did not log on alone: A law student who had previously been helping Christian with other matters accompanied him during the virtual hearing.

Christian said that by the end of the fake court hearing, the judge told him in Spanish that he’d have to pay just over $5,000 in the next eight days — or else the required payment would rise to $25,000. The law student flagged the scam to Legal Aid Society lawyers, who intervened and stopped it.

Christian was one of several migrants who testified about times they said they’d been victimized by immigration fraud. This can include legal services-related scams by attorneys and non-attorneys, as well as translators or providers of other services like public notaries posing as legal experts, who exploit the fact that lawyers often run notary services in many Spanish-speaking countries. 

“Over the past year, complaints of immigration services fraud in New York have increased, and advocates have consistently been ringing the alarm on these growing threats,” said Councilmember Alexa Avilés, chair of the council’s Committee on Immigration. “Oftentimes, immigration services fraud becomes more rampant in periods where demand for legal services increases.”

Councilmembers Shahna Hanif and Julie Won have each introduced legislation to address immigration fraud. Hanif’s bill, Intro 205, would educate the public about fraudulent schemes perpetrated by providers of immigration legal services; Won’s, Intro 980, would increase penalties for first and subsequent violations. 

The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), which handles civil fraud cases in the city, said complaints submitted about immigration service providers have increased over the past three years, with 23 complaints in 2022, 36 in 2023, and 46 in 2024.

During the council hearing, DCWP Commissioner Vilda Vera Mayuga said the department has “stepped up” investigations against employment agencies and immigration service providers.

DCWP said it recently completed a sweep of nearly 500 businesses advertising immigration or related services and issued more than 60 summonses.

“We look at what’s happening right now, and we know that ever since the change in administration in Washington, this is an area where we should focus on,” Mayuga said. 

Since January, the department explained, DCWP has received eight complaints, with most cases involving unauthorized practitioners.

DCWP conducts field inspections in response to complaints, and investigations can lead to summonses before the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings. Officials at DCWP acknowledge that prosecuting fraudulent immigration service providers and employment agencies remains an ongoing challenge. 

“Due to their fly-by-night nature, many operate out of temporary storefronts, residences, instant messaging apps or online platforms, only to disappear after being paid by a consumer,” Mayuga explained.

In Christian’s case, he found someone posing as a lawyer on Facebook. She told him through WhatsApp messages that she could help with his case for $1,750, which he paid.

Later on, he received what he later determined was a fake receipt notice, with an official-looking seal. 

The fake receipt had “some grammatical errors,” explained Deborah Lee, attorney-in-charge at the Legal Aid Society’s immigration law unit. Moreover, she said, “they had forgotten to translate parts into English.”

Still, it looked official enough to fool many asylum seekers, said Lee, who has been handling the case since the law student flagged it. “At first blush, especially if you’re not a native English speaker or reader, you wouldn’t necessarily be able to pick it up,” she said.

Lee said this was the first time they’d seen these types of fabricated court hearings, while DCWP acknowledged they haven’t received complaints that detail fake immigration hearings in the past.

“We haven’t seen something to this extent before,” Lee said.

During the oversight hearing, advocates noted that because many of these scams are taking place on social networks, they’re more difficult for city officials to punish, because there are no brick-and-mortar locations to inspect.

Lee and other advocates warned that scammers are also creating what appear to be either fraudulent or alternative immigration-related sites. Some, Lee explained, look like an immigration court site, while others look similar to a USCIS application tracker, “but it’s just a private site.” 

Asked by Avilés about its investigation of scams conducted over social media, Mayuga responded that DCWP relies on complainants to confirm the information they provide and help identify the person behind the account.

Other DCWP officials acknowledged that social media only exacerbates the fly-by-night aspect of this problem and stressed the importance of preventative measures such as education. Mayuga said the department is running a digital education campaign across social media platforms to educate New Yorkers about protections related to immigration service providers. Over the past three years, DCWP has coordinated a citywide day of action and has held 600 immigrant-focused outreach events.

Advocates and city officials each recognized immigrant communities’ hesitancy to file complaints due to fear of government interaction and reminded people that third parties, such as family members, friends, people from community organizations can submit them, anonymously if they prefer. Complaints can be filed by calling 311, at nyc.gov/Consumers or with the New York Attorney General’s Office at ag.ny.gov/file-complaint or by calling 1-800-771-7755. (A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office explained that it can take civil action against individuals or businesses who commit large-scale fraud on immigrant communities.)

Won’s chief of staff, Nick Gulotta, testifying in his personal capacity as someone who’s worked on this issue for years, recommended a sort of “worst landlords watch list” approach to this issue, or the creation of a fraud database.

“That’s a great idea,” Avilés seconded. “I’d like to call it the ‘shame list.’”

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact daniel@citylimits.org. 

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post Fake Courts, Fake Judges: Asylum Seekers Tell of Scams Meant to Prey on Immigrant Fears appeared first on City Limits.

Proposed cuts in Gov. Tim Walz’s budget look to end a more than 50-year-old practice of providing aid to private schools — from transportation to counseling — a move nonpublic school leaders say threatens family choice.

Minnesota leaders have until the end of June this year to come up with a two-year budget and are looking for ways to cut spending with a projected $6 billion deficit for the 2028-29 budget.

Under Walz’s proposed budget, aid for health services and educational materials as well as transportation for private schools are cut. Those reductions are estimated to save the state $109 million in the next two-year budget, “while incentivizing schools to create efficiencies in transportation,” according to the governor’s office.

“(The Minnesota Department of Education) remains committed to addressing budget challenges head-on with the needs of Minnesota students, educators, schools and libraries at the center. While the Governor’s budget proposal is often a starting point for conversation with legislators during the legislative session, the revised budget recommendations work within our fiscal reality to leave positive balances on the bottom line, ensuring our state remains in a position to continue serving learners for generations to come,” read a statement from state officials on April 9.

Students in Krista Welle’s 4th-grade class at St. Pascal Regional Catholic School in St. Paul raise their hands to a question during math instruction on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Private school officials say their schools actually save the state money by educating students at lower per-pupil costs than their public counterparts and that the cuts risk students’ ability to continue to attend the type of school they choose.

“But even when they go on the public school side, the public school side is still going to have to pay for and provide transportation for (students). So you take the dollars away, but you’re not taking the student away. That student, in some way, shape or form, is still going to need that service that’s going to have to be paid for by somebody in the state of Minnesota,” said Meg Forgette, associate director of quality and excellence for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which represents 90 Catholic private schools in Minnesota.

How it currently works

Public school districts have provided students at private schools transportation since a 1969 state statute required it in an effort to provide “equality of treatment in transportation.”

Minnesota has provided other nonpublic student aid since 1975, in the form of textbooks, instructional materials, standardized tests and pupil support services, such as guidance counseling and health services.

A student in Krista Welle’s 4th-grade class at St. Pascal Regional Catholic School in St. Paul works in their math book on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Students attending nonpublic schools or home schools within the boundaries of a public school district currently can request the district provide these services, and public school districts must provide transportation within the district for resident students attending nonpublic schools, according to the state education department.

Funding for such services is appropriated directly to public school districts, according to Minndependent — an advocacy group for private schools — which are reimbursed by the state.

“… These are kind of the words we’ve used: these are common good services for students, regardless of where they go,” said Tim Benz, president of Minndependent.

Savings

The governor’s office says the cuts are estimated to save the state money, but private school leaders see it another way.

“The collaboration that can happen where we’re able to make a lot of those dollars and those services go a lot farther than what would happen if we were trying to cover those significant expenses, school by school by school, it just doesn’t make sense,” Forgette said. “And so … as a taxpayer in Minnesota … we’re paying the same taxes as all of our other neighbors, when you look at just the lack of efficiency in what these cuts would create relative to what we have now, it just doesn’t make sense.”

The Archdiocese’s private schools educate students at lower costs than their public counterparts, saving taxpayers money, she said. The average per-pupil cost for the Archdiocese in its 90 Catholic schools in the state is around $8,532, Forgette said.

At Ascension Catholic Academy –  which has pre-kindergarten through eighth grade nonpublic schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul – that’s around $12,000 to $13,000, said vice president Quentin Moore. St. Paul Public Schools spent $23,112 per pupil in 2023-24. The state average is $16,649.

“And so, the amount of support that we’re providing to these students, and doing at such a lower cost, when those students who are most likely to be impacted by these cuts are forced, so to speak, to go to their public school district, that’s going to cost taxpayers for each of those students significantly more each school year,” Forgette said.

Impacts on students and families

At Ascension Catholic Academy, more than 70% of its 735 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, Moore said.

“And so again, you’re talking about a network, for us, of private schools that are really serving those navigating poverty, other challenges, and with cuts like this, it just makes that ability to deliver our mission, it just makes it harder,” he said.

If the proposed cuts are approved, Ascension is looking at needing to raise an additional $1 million to $1.2 million annually, or around 10% to 12% of its current operating budget, Moore said. For some schools, that fundraising could be donations or increased tuition.

For private schools that have a focus on programming for low-income students and depend on transportation aid, continuing to educate those students “wouldn’t be a reality” without that funding, said Josh Crosson, executive director of EdAllies, a nonprofit advocate for historically underserved students.

“Oftentimes when people think of nonpublic services or private schools, they think like the super ritzy, wealthy communities,” Crosson said. “But what we’re talking about here are the communities that are lowest income, that are exercising their school choice, that have opportunities outside, and those opportunities might be taken away.”

Arsema Mesfun, an eighth-grader at St. John Paul II Catholic School in Minneapolis, said “there is no way” her family would be able to choose the school without transportation.

“We bus at the local public school Las Estrellas. I don’t understand why our bussing would be cut when we share it with them, and they will continue to get bussing. I feel like this is a punishment to me, just because my parents chose a different school,” Mesfun said in testimony April 9 to the state Senate Committee on Education Finance.

Bus service is important, especially for families who wouldn’t be able to provide their children transportation otherwise, said Ivette Munoz of St. Paul, whose four children have attended St. Pascal Regional Catholic School.

“Sometimes we don’t want to move to a public school because it’s very important the faith piece in the kids’ education,” Munoz said.

Next steps

Walz and lawmakers enjoy a $546 million surplus as they develop the 2026-27 budget.

But there is a projected a $6 billion revenue shortfall projected for 2028-29. With a Democratic-Farmer-Labor-controlled Senate, tied House, and DFL Gov. Walz, lawmakers have different ideas as to how to address it.

House and Senate budget targets were due earlier this month. The Legislature needs to pass a budget by end of session May 19 to avoid a special session. If a new budget isn’t passed by the end of June, the government will shut down until the Legislature can pass one.

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In the race between Gophers and Badgers for voter turnout, the Badgers won.

Voters in Wisconsin narrowly outperformed Minnesota voters in the 2024 election. The University of Florida’s Election Lab reported that 76.35% of the voting-eligible population cast ballots in Minnesota. In Wisconsin, 76.64% of the voting-eligible population cast ballots.

Secretary of State Steve Simon regularly touts Minnesota’s long-running first-place voter turnout position. And he said while turnout was strong in the 2024 general election, it came up just a little bit short.

“In a heartbreakingly close contest, Minnesota lost the title of number one in voter turnout to Wisconsin for the 2024 election,” he said in a statement. “We congratulate our neighbors to the east on this victory and we’ll continue our work to earn the top spot back in 2026.”

Wisconsin was one of a handful of battleground states in last year’s presidential election. Campaigns spent tens of millions of dollars in Wisconsin, and voters sent a mixed message back by reelecting Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin.

Minnesota stayed in the Democratic column. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won the presidential vote in Minnesota with Gov. Tim Walz on the ticket. DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar easily defeated her Republican opponent.

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Today is Thursday, April 17, the 107th day of 2025. There are 258 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 17, 1961, some 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an attempt to topple Fidel Castro, whose forces crushed the incursion within three days.

Also on this date:

In 1964, Jerrie Mock completed the first solo around-the-world flight by a woman, landing her single-engine Cessna plane in Columbus, Ohio after a 29-day journey.

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Plans to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary were underway. Then came the federal funding cuts

In 1969, a jury in Los Angeles convicted Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. (Sirhan’s death sentence would be commuted to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He remains in prison today.)

In 1970, Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell, Fred W. Haise and Jack Swigert splashed down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft while enroute to the moon.

In 1972, the Boston Marathon allowed women to compete for the first time. Nina Kuscsik was the first officially recognized women’s champion, with a time of 3:10:26.

In 1975, Cambodia’s five-year civil war ended as the capital Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge, which instituted brutal, radical policies that claimed an estimated 1.7 million lives (nearly one in four Cambodians) until the regime was overthrown in 1979.

In 1991, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 3,000 for the first time, ending the day at 3,004.46, up 17.58.

In 1993, a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King. Two other officers were acquitted.

In 2020, President Donald Trump, via Twitter, urged supporters to “LIBERATE” three states led by Democratic governors, apparently encouraging protests against stay-at-home mandates aimed at stopping the coronavirus.

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor David Bradley is 83.
Actor Clarke Peters is 73.
Author Nick Hornby is 68.
Actor Sean Bean is 66.
Rock singer Maynard James Keenan (Tool) is 61.
Actor Lela Rochon is 61.
Actor Kimberly Elise is 58.
Singer-songwriter Liz Phair is 58.
Director-producer Adam McKay is 57.
Rapper-actor Redman is 55.
Football Hall of Famer Tony Boselli is 53.
Actor Jennifer Garner is 53.
Singer Victoria Beckham is 51.
Actor Rooney Mara is 40.