The victims, all Spanish speakers, were approached at church and promised legal help with immigration issues — for a price.

But authorities say the promised legal help was a scam and the attorney they were told would help them does not exist.

The ringleader of the scam, Kira Milany Romero Pinto, 40, of Lake Elmo, is now facing a felony racketeering charge and 11 felony counts of theft by swindle in Washington County District Court.

Pinto’s husband, Denis Rigoberto Aquino Martinez, 40, of Lake Elmo, and Luis Baltazar Leiva Aquino, 48, of Lakeville, also were charged for their roles in the scam.

In all, the three scammed more than 25 victims out of more than $563,000 during an almost two-year period, starting on Jan. 1, 2023, according to the Washington County Attorney’s Office and Dakota County Attorney’s Office, which are jointly prosecuting the cases.

The scams allegedly started with Pinto contacting prospective victims at church — either in Woodbury or Inver Grove Heights — and then offering assistance with immigration services, prosecutors say.

Pinto claimed she was connected to “a high-powered immigration attorney named Isabella Jason who could help them either obtain legal status in the United States or obtain citizenship more quickly,” Washington County Attorney Kevin Magnuson said. “The defendants would tell the victims that they needed money — usually cash — to retain the attorney. The defendants would require the victims to sign ‘contracts’ promising legal services for their money.”

The case, Magnuson said, is “a disturbing example of individuals exploiting trust within immigrant communities. We are committed to holding accountable those who prey on vulnerable residents seeking help and stability.”

Pinto told the victims that she could “help them in various ways, including legal assistance for immigration issues, obtaining visas for loved ones abroad, and assisting with unpaid bills in exchange for a monetary payment,” according to the criminal complaint filed against her.

In one case, she offered to sell the pastor of a church in Inver Grove Heights a $12,000 “golden card” that would give him the ability to help others get United States citizenship, the complaint states. “(But) at no point did any victim receive the documents or services promised by (Pinto).”

The pastor told police that Pinto “would often tell potential victims that there are laws in place which prohibit her from just ‘helping’ one person, so she would tell the victims to recruit other individuals to be ‘helped’ by her,” the complaint states.

Pinto required many of the victims to make advance cash payments in order to receive the services, with several of the payments taking place at her and Martinez’ residence in Lake Elmo, the complaint states.

One victim told police that he began giving Pinto cash in 2023 to help his wife gain U.S. citizenship. In total, between 2023 and 2024, he paid Pinto $22,000, the complaint states.

“In May 2025, (he) stated he took his wife to (Pinto’s) residence in Lake Elmo at (her) request so (his) wife could take a citizenship test,” the complaint states. “Neither (he) nor his wife received immigration documents or services as promised by Pinto.”

Aquino Martinez is charged with one count of felony theft by swindle and two counts of felony aiding and abetting theft by swindle. Leiva Aquino is charged with two counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle. All three were arrested and remain in custody.

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Because the victims live in both Washington and Dakota counties, the cases are being jointly prosecuted by the Washington and Dakota county attorneys’ offices. Seven of the victims are Washington County residents, and the known loss to those victims exceeds $118,000, Magnuson said.

Assistant Washington County Attorneys Nick Hydukovich and Richard Podvin and Assistant Dakota County Attorneys Evan Frazier and Molly Doda are prosecuting the case. The charges were filed in Washington County District Court, and court hearings will be held in Stillwater.

The investigation is being led by the Mendota Heights Police Department, with assistance from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Cottage Grove Police Department, Inver Grove Heights Police Department, Lakeville Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen and took his car with a child in the back seat and drove off from the scene of a raid in Los Angeles, advocates and family said Wednesday.

On a video provided by immigrant advocates, masked and armed agents are seen arresting a man by his car in a parking lot while his 1-year-old daughter is strapped into a car seat in the back. After the man is led away, agents are seen getting into the front of the car and driving off with the girl still inside.

The man is a U.S. citizen who was at the scene of a federal immigration raid at a Home Depot store in Los Angeles, said Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder of Immigrant Defenders Law Center. The firm, which handles immigration cases, was contacted by community members for help reuniting the family, but isn’t representing the man because he is American, she said.

“It was a dangerous act to have armed men get in a car with that child and remove her from the situation,” Toczylowski said, adding relatives picked up the child later that day from federal offices in Los Angeles. “They should have followed protocols that had the best interest of that child in mind.”

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U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to questions about why agents drove the man’s car or took the child.

In an email, an agency spokesperson said a U.S. citizen was arrested for investigation of assault on Tuesday after carrying a hammer and throwing rocks at Border Patrol agents carrying out a raid at a Home Depot store in Los Angeles while a child was in his car. Five immigrants were arrested during the operation on suspicion of immigration violations, the spokesperson said.

It was not immediately known where the man was on Wednesday, more than 24 hours after his arrest. His mother, Maria, told reporters, the family received a call from an unknown number Tuesday to pick up the girl at Border Patrol offices in Los Angeles, so they did. She said the child is fine but asking for her father, who was born in California and works in the restaurant industry.

Maria said she and the girl are also U.S. citizens. She declined to provide her last name to protect her granddaughter’s identity.

“It’s something very frightening,” she said in Spanish after seeing the video. “You don’t know who those people are.”

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS Direct File, the electronic system for filing tax returns for free, will not be offered next year, the Trump administration has confirmed.

An email sent Monday from IRS official Cynthia Noe to state comptrollers that participate in the Direct File program said that “IRS Direct File will not be available in Filing Season 2026. No launch date has been set for the future.”

The program developed during Joe Biden’s presidency was credited by users with making tax filing easy, fast and economical. However, it faced criticism from Republican lawmakers, who called it a waste of taxpayer money because free filing programs already exist (though they are difficult to use), and from commercial tax preparation companies, which have made billions from charging people to use their software.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is also the current IRS commissioner, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that there are “better alternatives” to Direct File. “It wasn’t used very much,” he said. “And we think that the private sector can do a better job.”

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The Center for Taxpayer Rights filed a Freedom of Information Act request for IRS’ latest evaluation of the program and the report says 296,531 taxpayers submitted accepted returns for the 2025 tax season through Direct File. That’s up from the 140,803 submitted accepted returns in 2024.

Direct File was rolled out as a pilot program in 2024 after the IRS was tasked with looking into how to create a “direct file” system as part of the money it received from the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by Biden in 2022. The Democratic administration spent tens of millions of dollars developing the program.

Last May, the agency under Biden announced that the program would be made permanent.

But the IRS has faced intense blowback to Direct File from private tax preparation companies that have spent millions lobbying Congress. The average American typically spends about $140 preparing returns each year.

The program had been in limbo since the start of the Trump administration as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency slashed their way through the federal government. But The Associated Press reported in April that the administration planned to eliminate the program, with its future becoming clear after the IRS staff assigned to it were told to stop working on its development for the 2026 tax filing season.

As of Wednesday, the Direct File website states that “Direct File is closed. More information will be available at a later date.”

The Washington Post and NextGov first reported on the email to state comptrollers confirming the program would not be offered next year.

Adam Ruben, a vice president at the liberal-leaning Economic Security Project, said “it’s not surprising” that the program was eliminated.

“Trump’s billionaire friends get favors while honest, hardworking Americans will pay more to file their taxes,” he said.

When the final votes rolled in for the St. Paul mayor’s race, even some of Kaohly Her’s supporters seemed taken aback that she had unseated Melvin Carter, who had handily won his last two elections.

“It seems like nobody expected me to win, except me,” said Her on Wednesday, the day after a hard-fought election that unfolded in just a matter of weeks.

Her, who announced her candidacy in early August, said she had no time or money to conduct formal polling during the campaign, but it became clear to her she had the advantage when she hired a campaign manager before Carter did.

“We were talking with the same person,” said Her, who said she found that the mayor had done little in the way of door knocking until she entered the race.

Aggressive campaigner

Between Aug. 4, when she officially entered the five-way mayor’s race, and Nov. 4, when she won it, Her engaged Carter and his three other challengers in a dozen debate-style mayoral forums, quickly establishing herself as the mayor’s most aggressive and vocal critic on the campaign trail.

The backdrop of sluggish or faltering economic development — a shuttered CVS store at Snelling and University avenues, a shuttered Cub Foods grocery in the Midway, a shuttered Lunds grocery downtown — did the mayor no favors, and seemed to underscore accusations from the Chamber of Commerce, among others, that the city had stagnated, especially downtown.

Among Her’s criticisms, she said the mayor had let relationships falter with state lawmakers and other key partners, and he lacked transparency and responsiveness in his dealings with neighborhood groups, making decisions with minimal input.

Community frustrations

On the Sunday before the election, Meg Duhr — president of the West Seventh/Fort Road Federation — took to Facebook to post a scathing critique of the mayor’s decision to install a maintenance depot and refueling site off West Seventh and Randolph avenues to serve FCC trash trucks involved in citywide garbage collection.

“I don’t actually blame Melvin for crime, vacant buildings, and an empty downtown. I understand the larger forces beyond his control,” Duhr wrote. “What I do blame him for is failing to listen to and respect the communities he is supposed to represent and for consistently using backdoor workarounds to the public process to get his way.”

“It’s not so much what he does, it’s how he does it,” she wrote, listing “emergency vetoes … sending his city attorneys to force our council member to recuse herself before a critical vote, asking his staff to manipulate the rankings of street projects for the Common Cent fund. I could go on.”

“In May, he promised to meet with the community right away to discuss a community benefits agreement between the city, FCC, and the community,” Duhr said. “But it took us four months of reminders and cajoling to get that scheduled and then we just got 30 minutes of his time.”

Election Night

On Election Night, Carter — a two-term incumbent — garnered about 41% of the vote on the first ballot, outpacing Her’s 38% by more than 1,700 votes. Still, about 60% of the city had voted for someone other than either candidate.

When ballots from challengers Yan Chen, Mike Hilborn and Adam Dullinger were redistributed, Her’s political fortunes rose by 10 percentage points, giving her the ultimate lead of 1,877 votes. She won with 48% of the vote, over Carter’s 45%.

Her, a state representative for House District 64A centered around Summit Avenue and Griggs Street, has been more gracious in victory, thanking Carter on Election Night for introducing her to public service. In 2018, early in his first term, she had served as the mayor’s policy director before stepping down to focus on her role as a state lawmaker.

Now, with the election behind her, comes the challenge of leading a city where rising property taxes have, in the eyes of many, outpaced the quality of city services and the upkeep of key business corridors, from Snelling and University avenues to much of downtown.

“We have a transition team that we have to put together,” Her said. “We have to look at how we’re going to move forward … and then all the relationships we need to build and the partners we need to meet with.”

On Wednesday Carter posted a social media post from 2023 in which he said “Heard somebody say #SaintPaul should #elect a woman as mayor and they might have been trying to insult me but that actually sounds cool.”

He added the comment “It still sounds nice. Good luck, Rep. Her.”

Shake-up of department leaders?

Her on Wednesday answered questions during a brisk walk from her Hamline Avenue campaign headquarters to a Charles Avenue playground, where she posed for pictures between media interviews.

On department leaders — does she plan to replace the city’s top staff:

“I would say that it’s not necessarily that I’m looking at ‘new.’ It’s that I need to do an evaluation,” she said. “We really have to if we want to move our city into looking at core city services. It would really require us to do an assessment.”

On the mayor’s recently-proposed, four-part gun control ordinance, which she once called “performative?:

“If the momentum has already moved forward with that, I don’t see a reason to undo that work. … I just need to make sure I understand where we are with that process.”

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On college savings accounts for newborns, another signature Carter initiative:

“I don’t have any plans to be getting rid of things. I like to be really thorough and detailed, which means that assessments really matter. I do really need to come in and take a look at where we are and how sustainable the program is before I can make any kind of decision about what’s going to happen with some of these things that have already been (established).”

On the proposed Summit Avenue bike trail and the downtown Mississippi River promenade, two initiatives she had called ripe for re-evaluation but not necessarily cancellation:

“Somebody actually said to me, ‘Now that the election is over, how do you really feel?’ No, I feel the same way. … I think that when people come in and they think they know everything or they have all the ideas or they have all the right answers is where they usually go wrong. I don’t know everything, and so I have to come in and review and be diligent and make good decisions based on what I’m finding. That really is always the foundation when I look at something if I’m going to do it or not.”