Scammers posing as lawyers are demanding money from undocumented people

When Carmen opened her email account Monday morning in Phoenix, a subject line immediately caught her eye.

“Notification of Approval for Conditional Release on Bail,” it read. Its sender appeared to be an immigration attorney whom she’d contacted after seeing a Facebook ad. Carmen’s husband had recently been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and was being held in a detention center in Florence, but the email promised a quick resolution.

An attachment in the email stated that her husband would be allowed “access to conditional release on bail” — if Carmen paid $1,950 in the next 48 hours.

The email was a scam, which Carmen fortunately recognized. (Carmen is a pseudonym to protect her identity. Phoenix New Times was provided the scam email by a third party.) But according to immigration advocates, others targeted by scam emails — often in the emotional aftermath of a loved one’s detention — aren’t always so perceptive.

The basic tactics are always the same. Scammers target immigrants during a time of fear and uncertainty and then, either offering a quick solution or making a veiled threat, ask for money on a short deadline.

“When there is uncertainty, there is the potential for scams,” said Francisco Aguirre, the founder and CEO of Beyond Attorneys. “The fear compounded with the news that they’re receiving on a daily basis will prompt the victim to act quickly without hesitation, and that’s where they get you.”

Salvador Macias, an immigration attorney at Nuñez Law Firm, has seen a variety of immigration scams over the years that often involve a fake lawyer and even go as far as recording a fake immigration hearing to send to victims. He’s heard of families paying as much as $8,000 to fake attorneys. He believes these scams are perpetuated by “nefarious organizations” outside of the country who find out that someone has been detained through mugshots on the ICE website.

Aguirre said his sister, who is college-educated and undocumented, was targeted by such a scam in the last month. She spent five hours on the phone with a man claiming to be an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Agguire said the man the man wanted $3,000 in the next three hours or “somebody’s gonna come and pick you up.”

“She was walking to the bank when she called me, and I said ‘No, you’re not going. Turn around,’” Aguirre recalled. “My sister hasn’t even had a parking ticket.”

The scam targeting Carmen followed that playbook, though Aguirre said it was particularly “sophisticated.” Purporting to be from an attorney named Gregory A. Garcia of the firm Migracion Vernal, the email appeared to forward a message from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

The firm even had a website. A domain name lookup shows the site was created in 2023 and is registered to an address in Burlington, Mass., that corresponds to a generic office park. Facebook's ad database does show a page for the fake company, though no active ads. According to the database, the primary location of the people managing the Migracion Vernal page is Colombia.

Under scrutiny, though, the whole facade crumbles. The USCIS message was signed by “Tompson Kenley” an immigration judge who doesn’t appear to exist but whose name is oddly similar to Nebraska immigration judge Kenley Thompson. Migracion Vernal’s website has several images of supposed staff members that a reverse image search reveals to be stock photos. That includes an image of the firm’s immigration law specialist, whom the site identifies as Ana Maria Gutierrez.


According to the USCIS website, immigration-related scams can be reported to the Federal Trade Commission or the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. Attorney General’s Office spokesperson Delaney Corcoran said the agency is working on putting out a press release to raise awareness about immigration extortion schemes.

To that end, Macias said to look out for two red flags. The first, he said, is “that the government never reaches out to you.” Anyone doing so while claiming to be a government official is likely lying. Macias says to be extra skeptical if anyone demands to be paid.

“If somebody seeks you out and asks for money, that’s a red flag,” he said. “Period.”