A New York-based lawyer has pleaded guilty to participating in an immigration fraud scheme to illegally speed up refugee status applications.
Kofi Amankwah, 70, a Bronx lawyer, circumvented loopholes in the system by getting asylum seekers in the city to claim they were victims of domestic violence and collect up to $6,000. Federal prosecutors have said Amankwah could face more than 10 years in prison and $16 million in restitution.
Damien Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement that Amankwah oversaw a massive fraud scheme that undermined the U.S. immigration system.
“For years, Kofi Amankwah oversaw a massive immigration fraud scheme in which his clients submitted thousands of immigration documents falsely alleging that they were being abused by their children or other family members,” Williams said.
“Amankwah's actions undermined our nation's immigration system, exploited VAWA (a law that allows alien victims of domestic violence to obtain lawful permanent residence), and victimized vulnerable clients in the process,” Williams continued.[Tuesday’s] The guilty plea underscores our firm's dedication to holding accountable those who abuse their position of trust as lawyers.”
Prosecutor Claim Amankwah “charged migrants between $3,000 and $6,000 to submit false petitions alleging child abuse, triggering restrictions that expedited their travel abroad despite the lack of legal status, and ultimately made it easier to establish residency,” the report said. New York Post.
“In this scam, the federal government said, immigrants who claim they have been abused can qualify to travel legally abroad even though they do not have lawful U.S. residency,” it added. NY Post“Upon his return, he claimed their 'Early Parole Travel' status would allow him to gain legal residency status sooner.”
America's immigration crisis is creating an environment conducive to fraud, according to Fox News. Reported This week, the Biden-Harris Administration's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) only recently “restarted a burdensome immigration program that it had suspended a month ago over fraud concerns.”
“According to a mid-July internal Department of Homeland Security report, the CHNV (Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans) parole program Overrun “It is a fraud,” the media reported.
“The program allows up to 30,000 nationals from these four countries to enter the United States each month if sponsored by a person or organization in the United States. But the Department of Homeland Security discovered that thousands of sponsors of these immigrants had provided false Social Security numbers, home addresses and phone numbers,” it added.
