Immigration scams targeted by coordinated govt effort

In an effort to stop scams that charge immigrants for bogus services, US immigration officials in Texas had sued two notaries public in Edinburg, accusing them of offering fraudulent immigration services.

The officials are stepping up efforts to prosecute con artists and educate immigrants about the schemes, according to an executive summary of the initiative released today by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The effort is starting in seven cities, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Fresno, California, and San Antonio, Texas and will expand nationwide, according to the summary.

The scammers "target people who are among the most vulnerable," said Edith Ramirez, a Democrat, one of the five members of the Federal Trade Commission, in a statement.

Criminals lure victims by increasingly using the internet as well as word of mouth, fliers and paid advertisements on the radio or newspapers, the summary said.

The Obama administration held a news conference today in Washington attended by officials from the citizenship and immigration services agency, the FTC, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Justice Department.

Often the scams involve someone posing as a licensed attorney charging immigrants to file for benefits for which they are ineligible or to furnish forms that the government provides for free, according to the summary.

A common scam in Spanish-speaking communities takes advantage of immigrants' confusion with the word "notario," the government said.

Habib Rahman, of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, warned the new proposals would create a "guest workers" scheme in Britain.

"The guest workers will have a very restricted right to settle in the UK and will have fewer rights when they are here," he said.

"It will open them up to exploitation and lead to a two-tier workforce in Britain. The restrictions on legitimate avenues to settle is bound to lead to increasing irregularity and overstaying," Rahman cautioned.

However, Andrew Green of MigrationWatch, said the plan would provide an incentive for employers to train British workers rather than take skilled foreign workers "off the shelf".

The proposals, announced yesterday in a public consultation exercise, will affect Indian skilled workers as well as domestic workers such as cooks and maids who travel to Britain with their employers.

Home Secretary Theresa May said she will "break that link and return to a position where Britain will continue to attract the brightest and best workers, who will make a strong contribution to our economy and society during their stay, then return home."

"A small number of exceptional migrants will be able to stay permanently but for the majority, coming here to work will not lead automatically to settlement in the UK," May underlined.

Campaign groups said that if foreign professionals were not allowed to settle here permanently, they would rather migrate to countries such as Canada and Australia.