Please support and pass H.R. 8628, the End U Visa Abuse Act. Five people have now pleaded guilty in federal court for running a U visa fraud ring out of central Louisiana, and four of them were law enforcement officials — three police chiefs and a marshal — paid $5,000 a name to document armed robberies that never occurred.

The whole program rests on one thing: a sworn certification from law enforcement that the applicant was a real victim who helped a real investigation. In Louisiana, that certification was the product for sale. The scheme ran nearly a decade, generated more than 650 applications, and produced roughly 300 visas. The certification process did not catch it. Immigration officers did, after noticing that a quiet rural county was suddenly producing armed robbery reports by the dozen.

A separate ring in Massachusetts staged holdups at convenience stores so clerks could claim victim status, and defendants there have pleaded guilty as well. With more than 416,000 petitions pending against a cap of 10,000, no prosecutor can police this one indictment at a time.

H.R. 8628 repeals the U visa category. Please support it and press for a floor vote. Convictions reach the people who were caught; only Congress can shut down the reason the fraud was worth committing in the first place.

Greg Raven, Apple Valley, CA

Sent to:
Jay Obernolte