Thousands of immigrants scammed by US attorney

WASHINGTON
An attorney in Washington state promised “miracles” to tens of thousands of immigrants seeking legal status in the United States. Instead, Alexandra Lozano created fake stories of domestic abuse and human trafficking to apply for humanitarian visas without her clients’ knowledge, according to several lawsuits and a legal ethics investigation.
They say she preyed on immigrants’ desperation to drain their bank accounts while leaving them at risk of deportation. She is accused hiring workers who didn’t have proper legal credentials and building an assembly-line system to rush through applications, even copying clients’ signatures onto documents they never saw.
“I put the trust of my family with her,” 30-year-old Gabriel Martinez Garcia said. After they paid $30,000, he said Lozano duped his family and got his mother placed in removal proceedings despite her marriage to a naturalized US citizen. “We believed in her and then she just let us down.”
Lozano’s firm, Luz del Camino Legal, closed this month amid a barrage of allegations. She permanently surrendered her law license rather than face discipline from the bar association, and denies wrongdoing. While federal data shows immigration service scams are rising sharply, Lozano’s alleged scheme stands out for its scale. The bar says her signature is on more than 53,000 pending cases.
It’s unclear how many cases were fraudulent or to what extent her clients were complicit. The ones suing her say they had no idea. The consequences of her downfall are hitting the immigration system “like a tidal wave,” said Erika Gonzalez, an attorney with the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking.
The Trump administration last year started overhauling the humanitarian programs Lozano allegedly exploited, claiming a surge in applications since 2020 was a sign of widespread fraud. The administration tightened the programs’ restrictions and slowed processing rates, which advocacy groups say will hurt legitimate victims. The visas are meant for people who were trafficked or abused
Lozano specialized in getting visas through the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 and the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, which covers all genders.These programs seek to protect victims from having their immigration status weaponized by abusers. Evidence standards are more flexible, making the system more accessible to victims. But it’s also easier for an unscrupulous firm to exploit, immigration attorneys say.
Lozano’s firm probed clients for issues at home or work, then spun them as abuse cases that didn’t meet the threshold for these humanitarian programs, according to attorneys representing dozens of her old clients. Although clients quickly secured work permits, they often faced trouble years later when seeking permanent residency and their claims faced greater scrutiny.
Lozano denies mass immigration fraudAngelo Calfo, an attorney representing Lozano, said clients were expected to review their applications before signing and blamed them for any false statements.
“Alexandra’s practice has always been to fight for her clients, zealously pursue every lawful option available to them, and support their efforts to build lives in this country,” his statement said.