Yuridia Hernandez Linares, a 36-years-old foreign national, pleaded guilty to operating a business that helped secure U visas for illegal aliens, who falsely claimed to have been a victim of a violent crime.
Linares and a friend had used a box cutter to make it appear they had been the victims of a violent robbery and they received U Visas.
Evidently, she saw the possibility in turning this knowledge into cash.
She pleaded guilty to charging illegal aliens $2,000 to $5,000 to help them apply for and receive a U visa.
She admitted to them with box cutters and then having them report that they had been a victim of a violent crime, and from there they would work on attaining a U visa so they could remain in the country.
Fraud of this kind has been increasing for years and the government put out a report to discuss the growing problem of fake claims of violence.
Linares is in Heppenin County custody and faces up to ten years in prison and a $20,000 fine.
Her sentencing hearing is set for January 30.
Last year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) detailed potential widespread abuse of the U visa program spurred by a provision in the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in which more than 2,200 cases of potential fraud by foreign nationals have been detected since 2013, Breitbart News reported.
In fiscal year 2014, there were fewer than 200 cases of potential fraud in the U visa program.
By fiscal year 2019, the number of potential fraud cases had increased to more than 800 — a 305 percent jump in six years.
