Act confidently and no one will question you. That’s sure what Kimberly Cruz did. Cruz, posing as an immigration attorney, brought nearly one hundred Mexican migrants through a border crossing in Eagle Pass, Texas. Believing that she was a lawyer, the migrants paid her nearly $275,000 for legal services to cross the border and connect with family. But she wasn’t bringing them to the family like promised.
Cruz’s scheme consisted of collecting identity documents, including birth certificates, passports and I.D. cards, from Mexican nationals who believed she was an attorney. She paired the ID photo with valid immigration paperwork to which she had access. She would then send the completed documents to border officials to obtain the official stamp of approval for a border crossing. The documents technically allowed the migrants to enter the country for only twenty-four to forty-eight hours for immigration necessary appointments. But instead of taking them to get finger printing, like the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services believed, or to family, like the migrants believed, Cruz was dropping them off at mall parking lots or bus stations to fend for themselves while absconding with the fees.
Cruz had previously worked at a law firm in an administrative capacity which accounts for her general knowledge of legal matters. She knew enough to sound convincing to the authorities. Cruz’s scheme continued for all of 2019 until a border agent talked to the people she was helping cross and learned they thought they were going somewhere other than where their paperwork claimed they were going. Now Cruz will be facing fourteen years in prison.
Shoutout to the border agent who asked questions!
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Phony lawyer gets 14 years in scheme to dupe migrants and border agents in smuggling op” published by USA Today on June 18, 2024.
A woman in Texas who hatched a scheme to dupe border officials into thinking she was a lawyer for migrants has been sentenced to 14 years in prison after investigators discovered she was orchestrating a human smuggling operation, Department of Justice officials announced Monday.
Kimberly Cruz, posing as an immigration attorney, brought nearly 100 Mexican migrants through a border crossing in Eagle Pass, Texas. They paid her a total of nearly $275,000 for legal services to cross the border and connect with family; the 35-year-old was also creating fraudulent documents she used to fool border officials, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.
