New Immigration Fraud Scheme Exposed: Faking Robberies For “Victim Visas”

In one of the most jaw-dropping immigration fraud schemes uncovered to date, migrants are now staging fake robberies to get “U visas” to remain in the United States. This scam has allegedly been perpetrated “hundreds” of times over the past few years in just one U.S. city.

According to a press release from the Department of Justice, “Suburban Chicago man” Parth Nayi has been sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay $50,000 in fines for running a crime racket with the express goal of helping foreigners obtain “victim” visas. Five others were convicted alongside him for the scheme.

These visas, called U visas, were first created by the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. They are offered to anyone who “has suffered substantial physical or mental abuse as a result of a crime,” witnessed a crime, or otherwise helped law enforcement with a criminal investigation.

The visa is incredibly generous, allowing for the recipient to stay in the country for four years and lawfully work. Recipients can then apply for lawful permanent resident status (a “green card”), according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. A green card holder can then become a U.S. citizen in as little as three years.

The U visa also opens the door for “chain migration,” allowing spouses, children, and even siblings to obtain the visa and eventual permanent resident status.

Given the lucrative benefits for U visa recipients, it is no wonder Nayi and his co-conspirators were so successful running the scam.

Nayi and his gang “organized and participated in hundreds of staged armed robberies at coffee shops, restaurants, liquor stores, and gas stations throughout the country” between 2022 and 2024, according to the DOJ.

They staged robberies “in Chicago and the suburbs of Lombard, Elmwood Park, St. Charles, Hickory Hills, River Grove, Lake Villa, and South Holland.”

For a price of between $5,000 and $30,000, Nayi would help the fake victims stage robberies so they could then apply for visa certification. Not a bad price to pay to get almost guaranteed approval for permanent residency.

The scheme tragically backfired though “when a purported robber accidentally shot a store clerk in the abdomen, critically injuring him” at a liquor store in Chicago.

Nayi oversaw 17 such robberies, but because the visa allows for family members to free-ride on one crime “victim,” a total of 100 individuals were granted fraudulent visas due to his actions, CWB Chicago reported.

Yet this case may just be a drop in the bucket. If fraud this widespread was taking place in Chicago, it’s a safe bet that scammers were running the same scheme in other cities as well.

In 2021, President Joe Biden also created a new category called “Bona Fide Determination,” which effectively allows applicants to receive the benefits of the visa while it is being processed. Approvals under this backdoor option spiked from 17,990 in 2021 to a whopping 103,196 in 2025, according to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).

The bureaucratic slog works in favor of the applicants, as CIS explains.

“The backlogs are not a barrier to benefits, because several administrations have established processes to enable most U visa petitioners to receive deportation protections and work permits even before their cases are scrutinized and adjudicated on the merits,” the group warned. “These rules create an incentive to file bogus petitions to receive the benefits while the application sits on a shelf for years.”

CIS has flagged other problems with the program, citing a Department of Homeland Security report that determined “two-thirds of U visa petitions it reviewed were based on alleged criminal victimizations that would not result in prosecution or were already closed cases.”

Furthermore, sanctuary states such as Illinois, where this massive scheme occurred, “require law enforcement agencies to certify cases regardless of the merits.”

More prominent visa programs like the H-1B temporary work visa get most of the attention in the media. And indeed, H-1B is particularly egregious because of how companies have exploited it to replace American workers with cheap foreign labor.

But this scandal out of Chicago is a poignant reminder that H-1B is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the problems with the visa system. The United States currently offers more than 180 visa options – meaning that scammers have a virtually unlimited number of ways to game the system and bypass the lawful immigration process.

Moreover, it is a reminder that stopping illegal border crossings and deporting illegal aliens is only half the battle when it comes to solving America’s immigration crisis. Untold millions of individuals like those who worked with Parth Nayi technically have “legal” status, but only because they lied to take advantage of a visa program.

Identifying, prosecuting, and deporting these scammers is just as important as securing the border when it comes to protecting American sovereignty and the sanctity of U.S. citizenship.