OPINION: Scammers are targeting immigrants

It’s a scary time to be an immigrant, legal or otherwise, and those who scam for a living are taking advantage of people they see as a vulnerable population.

Some Santa Fe residents have reported getting questionable notices on their doors, saying “It is necessary that I speak with you regarding an individual who is being considered for a position of National Security or Public Trust with the U.S. Government.” The notice, purportedly from the U.S. Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, asks the person to respond by using the provided phone number or email address, saying “Your comments regarding this individual’s fitness and suitability will be greatly appreciated.”

Miles Tokunow, executive director of the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, says he has received confirmation that the notice is bogus.

“It continues to do the work … of stoking fear and confusion and being able to rely on that fear and confusion to sadly exploit an extremely targeted and vulnerable population,” he says.

Also continuing to circulate are scams involving notaries public and state or online law offices offering legal services that they aren’t qualified or licensed to handle.

“Another aspect of why immigration legal services is so ripe for people trying to take advantage of others is the fact that the need is so great and the capacity is so low,” Tokunow says. “So many counties are immigration legal deserts.”

He recommends using the services of nonprofits and local community groups to get information and lawyer recommendations. Such groups “are bound by their mission (rather than) by an interest in making money.”

Nationwide, the FBI is warning of government impersonators scaring foreign students who are in the U.S. lawfully or who are in the process of coming here. The imposters claim the targeted person is not in compliance with student visa requirements or is facing other immigration issues.

The victim is “threatened with prosecution or deportation and asked to pay an unknown entity or bank account to process immigration paperwork, pay university registration fees, or pay a legal fee,” the agency says.

Among those targeted are students from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan.

The scammers in most cases pretend they are from the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

There also have been instances in which the imposter poses as an official from a foreign country or a diplomat from that country’s embassy.

In these types of scams, the National Consumers League recommends verifying whether the contact is from a legitimate immigration or university official. Real government workers will only contact you from email addresses ending in “.gov,” the league says.

If contacted by phone, reach out to the office named through other means than the one provided, such as through previous communications or through a third party. “Do not provide information or money until you have verified that the demands are legitimate,” the organization says.

Such imposter scams — in which someone pretends to be a government official, a relative in distress or a romantic interest, for example — were the third-most frequent type of fraud reported to the Federal Trade Commission in 2024.

Victims who reported these scams lost a total of nearly $3 billion last year.