East L.A. woman is sentenced to nine years in prison for immigration services scam https://t.co/3Lvr1SX3Yj— L.A. Times: L.A. Now (@LANow) December 8, 2018
Los Angeles Times
written by Andrea Castillo
Friday December 7, 2018
An East Los Angeles woman was sentenced Friday to nine years in prison for defrauding 32 people seeking immigration services, according to the L.A. County district attorney’s office.
An L.A. County Superior Court judge also ordered Dalila Moreno, 64, to pay the victims $303,500 in restitution. Moreno will be subject to three years of mandatory supervision after serving her prison term.
Moreno pleaded guilty in August to 12 felony counts: six of counterfeit seal, three of forgery, one of grand theft of personal property, one of attempted grand theft of personal property and one of extortion. She admitted to taking property valued at more than $65,000 in her plea deal.
Moreno operated a fraudulent immigration services business out of her home for several years, according to the district attorney’s office. She told victims she worked for the government and had special connections, prosecutors said.
She promised to expedite the processing of visas, green cards and citizenship petitions, prosecutors said. She pretended to provide those services by creating fake visas and passport stamps, for which she collected payment.
Moreno was arrested Jan. 10 and has been in jail since.
According to the American Bar Assn., people who falsely claim to be qualified to offer immigration advice or services routinely target immigrants. Misrepresentations sometimes result in immigrants being unnecessarily deported.
ABC Action News published on Sep 18, 2013: Immigrants scammed into paying thousands for fake "citizenship". At least 40 people say a woman stole their dreams of becoming American citizens.
I looked for any news about this evil woman from East Los Angeles getting arrested or even sentenced for this immigration scam and found nothing about her. But I did however come across a similar story about another evil woman who did the same exact thing several years ago. So many attorneys claiming to be immigration attorney across America are indeed scamming people out of literally thousands of dollars they saved up who are trying to do the right thing to become legal in America. These attorneys need to be stopped once and for all. And what's worse is if let's say the client finds out about the immigration scam, the evil attorney will just say, "I dare you to report me." knowing damn well the person would be afraid of being deported. So out of fear, the client needing immigration help won't report them to the police, and painfully let them steal their hard earned money. (emphasis mine)
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