DOUBLE DEVASTATION

Trump Chaos Fuels Massive Gold Rush for Scammers

Fake lawyers and bogus federal agents have fleeced terrified migrants of millions.

Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has unleashed a wave of scams targeting migrants who are terrified of being deported.

Reports of immigration-related fraud to the Federal Trade Commission have doubled since the president returned to the White House, according to a damning ProPublica investigation that examined more than 6,200 cases.

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The FTC was fielding around 960 complaints a year before the November 2024 vote. In 2025, the figure rocketed to nearly 2,000 as fraudsters cashed in on the panic and confusion stoked by the president’s mass-deportation drive.

Among the casualties cited by ProPublica was Nicaraguan asylum-seeker Jasmir Urbina, 35, who was preparing for her long-awaited day in immigration court when federal agents swarmed her adopted city of New Orleans for “Operation Swamp Sweep” in late November.

Spooked, Urbina sought help via a Facebook advertisement masquerading as Catholic Charities—the prominent aid group that helps immigrants—and was connected over WhatsApp to a smooth-talking woman calling herself “Susan Millan,” who said she was a qualified attorney, the outlet reported.

Urbina handed over close to $10,000—savings to buy her family’s first home—and was talked through a fake five-minute video call with a man in green fatigues, with what appeared to be official insignia stitched onto his shirt, set against an American flag backdrop. The next day, “Millan” claimed her residency had been awarded and that she could skip her real court date.

Two months later, ICE agents bundled Urbina, in cuffs and ankle restraints, onto a flight back to Nicaragua.

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The real Catholic Charities has been swamped by desperate migrants who realize too late they’ve been duped. “There’s a reason why we have a good reputation,” Chris Ross, the organization’s vice president of migration and refugee resettlement services, told ProPublica. “And so for someone to be trading on that goodwill with nefarious intent is very frustrating.”

Another victim was José Aguilar, 56, a Minnesota-based leather worker from El Salvador who was conned out of $15,000 by Facebook fraudsters posing as Miami immigration attorney Jorge Rivera (there is no wrongdoing alleged against the real Rivera). Aguilar, a dad of two who has had a heart transplant, now lives off food bank handouts. “It’s unforgivable,” Aguilar told ProPublica.

ProPublica’s investigation also found that scammers are increasingly using AI tools and social media advertising to lure their prey. The image of “Susan Millan” appeared to be AI-generated. “People think they’re talking to a real person, or the logos and stuff look pretty professional to the untrained eye,” said Chris Ross, of Catholic Charities.

In total, more than $94.4 million has been allegedly stolen, according to FTC complaints filed over the past five years—a figure thought to be a vast undercount, given many migrants are too frightened to report the crime, fearing deportation themselves.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not address Urbina’s case but told ProPublica: “Anyone caught impersonating a federal immigration agent will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” The White House declined to comment.

The Daily Beast has contacted DHS and the White House for comment. A DHS spokesperson said, “We are declaring an all-out war on immigration fraud in all forms. Immigration scammers contribute to a lawless environment, undermining our immigration system and posing risks to national security and public safety.”

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Tom LatchemLead Global Correspondent

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