The perpetrators of one of the largest immigration fraud schemes being run out of the Los Angeles area in recent years have been sentenced to prison, reports the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
According to the USCIS press release, the San Gabriel consulting firm operating this massive, ongoing immigration fraud operation was known as the New Arrival Immigration Service, and it was run by Haoren Ma, 50. Ma, along with one employee (49-year-old Minghan Dong), were helping Chinese nationals fraudulently obtain asylum in the U.S. based on fake claims of religious persecution.
The perpetrators of one of the largest immigration fraud schemes run out of the LA area in recent years have been sentenced to prison, reports USCIS.
USCIS Becomes Aware of Massive Immigration Fraud Scheme
USCIS officials first became aware of the immigration fraud scheme in January 2009 when U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents got ahold of a package transporting five fake Chinese passports hidden within a stuffed animal. The address on the package was to a mailbox used by the New Arrival Immigration Services business, leading agents to open up an investigation into the activities of this business.
USCIS officials reportedly worked in conjunction with officials from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to gather evidence in this immigration fraud case and bring the perpetrators to justice. The investigation in this case ultimately revealed that, since 2009, this scheme led to the filing of more than 800 fraudulent asylum applications with the USCIS.
While Ma was sentenced to 4 ½ years in federal prison for orchestrating the immigration fraud operation, his employee (Dong) was sentenced to one year and a day for his role in facilitating this scheme.
In describing its ongoing efforts to target and prosecute immigration fraud, David Radel, Acting L.A. Asylum Office Director with USCIS, has stated that, “
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