Salvador Ramirez Arevalos had never attended an online immigration hearing, so the session, held on Google Meet, seemed official to him.
His purported immigration attorney, a man named Mariano Fernandez Hidalgo, the one he’d been paying thousands of dollars to help him land a “green card,” was there, wearing a gray suit, yellow tie and black horn-rimmed glasses.
Then there was a young-looking man in a goatee and mustache, wearing a black judge’s robe and sitting in front of a large seal of the U.S. Department of Justice. Speaking in Spanish, the robed man identified himself as the “consular official in this legal process, Eduardo Cruz.”
With an authoritative tone, the man told Ramirez, 30, a Mexican immigrant with family ties to Sonoma County, that he was in the final stages of his legal immigration process.
After years of working in the United States with a restrictive but legal visa for agriculture workers, Ramirez had invested his hope and hard-won savings as an orchard worker in the prospect of finally becoming a legal permanent resident.
In the end, it was that hope — and the isolation that makes so many immigrants vulnerable targets for fraudsters — that blinded him to what he has since been told was an extensive and elaborate scam.
In all, he lost about $18,000 — money he paid to Fernandez for legal help that never, in fact, materialized. And, more difficult to quantify is shattered trust in the process he’d begun to gain permanent legal residency in the U.S. The experience has left him feelings waves of depression.
Salvador Ramirez rests after a day of work inside his H-2A housing Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in Quincy, Washington. (Jacob Ford/For The Press Democrat)
“It comes and goes,” Ramirez said, speaking in Spanish. “Sometimes I’m at peace and suddenly the thought of losing everything comes back to mind and I start getting anxious and stressed out.”
His experience is one of legions reported each year by immigrants who, according to a recent report by the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica, have lost tens of millions of dollars paid to scammers in recent years, a period that coincides with a stiffened federal application process and the Trump administration’s aggressive domestic immigration enforcement crackdown.
Last year, the Federal Trade Commission received 2,000 complaints from immigrants who reported being scammed by fake attorneys or people posing as federal officers, according to ProPublica. That’s twice the average number of complaints received each year between the start of 2021 to the fall of 2024.
In the past five years, immigrants reported losing $94 million in such scams, ProPublica reported.
‘All-out war’ against scammers
Following a ProPublica report about scammers who target people in immigration proceedings, the Department of Homeland Security has reportedly launched an “all-out war” against the fraudsters.
According to ProPublica, DHS is looking into “URLs, WhatsApp numbers and identifying information on the payment app Zelle that might trace back to scammers, said sources knowledgeable about the inquiry. The department’s investigation is ramping up as such scams skyrocket.”
ProPublica’s reporting found:
Scammers had defrauded victims of at least $94.4 million over five years.
More than 6,200 complaints to the Federal Trade Commission included everything from fake ICE agents demanding personal details and threatening deportation to scammers asking international students for money by exploiting their visa status.
Scammers often pretend to be lawyers who offer ways to avoid in-person immigration hearings. They take advantage of anxieties among even lawful residents.*
Scammers often advertise on social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok before shifting to encrypted messaging platforms like WhatsApp. They ask for money in exchange for realistic but fake immigration filings.
Local immigrant advocates said the scams have intensified amid the Trump administration’s bid to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in modern U.S. history, affecting both undocumented and legal immigration. Fraudsters have sought to cash in, taking advantage of immigrants’ desperation.
Many will readily pay thousands of dollars in order to get out of the federal government’s crosshairs.
“They’re so desperate to get legal status right now because of everything that’s going on that they’re paying it,” said Jennielynn Holmes, CEO of Catholic Charities of Northwest California.
“It’s already such a devastating time with everything that’s happening with that community, and to have this additional concern is just so, so disappointing,” Holmes said.
In early June, Holmes and Santa Rosa Police Chief John Cregan jointly issued a public warning for local residents about scammers who were posing as Catholic Charities employees and falsely promising immigration legal services in exchange for hefty fees.
Jennielynn Holmes, CEO of Catholic Charities of Northwest California, and Santa Rosa Police Chief John Cregan released a joint statement Wednesday, June 3, warning residents of impersonation scams targeting local immigrants. (Press Democrat staff)
The scammers reportedly reach out to immigrants via unsolicited email, texts or through social media and try to enroll individuals in phony immigration programs. The scammers guarantee such things as a fast-track legalization process or special access to immigration benefits.
The purported attorney helping Ramirez made similar promises with each money transfer of $1,000 or more.
False promises
Ramirez, who has a sister who lives in Cloverdale, is from Michoacan, Mexico. He’s been working in Washington with his agricultural worker visa since he was 18, picking and pruning apple and cherry trees in the Wenatchee area, a major fruit-growing region on the east side of the Cascade Mountains alongside the Columbia River.
About a year ago in April, Ramirez said he first contacted Fernandez after a friend told him he was helping him legalize his own status. Ramirez said both he and that friend have H2-A visas that allow them to legally do seasonal agricultural work. Those visas do not offer a direct pathway to a green card.
Salvador Ramirez repairs a tractor used to turn over the soil in an orchard on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in Quincy, Washington. (Jacob Ford/For The Press Democrat)
Salvador Ramirez mows the grass between the rows of an orchard on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in Quincy, Washington. (Jacob Ford/For The Press Democrat)
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Salvador Ramirez repairs a tractor used to turn over the soil in an orchard on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in Quincy, Washington. (Jacob Ford/For The Press Democrat)
Ramirez said he contacted Fernandez and received a response within a half-hour.
“I started talking to him and he asked for my visas and everything, like a normal process,” he said. “The only thing that seemed odd to me were the Ria money transfers I would make at Mexican grocery stores.”
Ria Money Transfer is a global remittance service.
The money transfers were never made directly to Fernandez but rather to individuals Fernandez designated, Ramirez said. The attorney would send him information through the messaging platform WhatsApp, including the name of the person to receive the money, the state, ZIP code and telephone number, he added.
There were several video calls with Fernandez and people who purported to be immigration officials, he said. At one point, he was shown a green card with his name on it and he was asked to verify the accuracy of the information, Ramirez said.
His family members started questioning the validity of the interactions.
“They said, ‘How are they going to show that to you there if they’re still asking for this and that?’” he said, adding that family members suggested he was being scammed.
When Ramirez began balking at the incessant requests for money, he was told that if he didn’t follow through with the process he might be subject to deportation, even with his H2-A visa.
Payment per document signed
Fernandez sought payment with each document Ramirez was asked to sign, according to records of the voicemails, WhatsApp text messages, payment receipts and other documents Ramirez shared with The Press Democrat.
The attorney would send him PDF documents that resembled immigration forms from the U.S. Department of Justice. In a document dated Aug. 3, 2025, supposedly from the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Ramirez was notified that a green card had been issued but that he had to continue with “scheduled appointments.”
“We would like to emphasize the importance of complying with all requirements and scheduled appointments, as failure to do so will be considered noncompliance and may result in the termination of the process,” the document reads.
Another document dated July 16, 2025, from the Department of Homeland Security, with the title “Notice to Appear before the Immigration Court,” Ramirez is told that his request for a green card has been accepted but that he must attend a preliminary hearing to “complete a questionnaire of civic questions; you must pass a minimum of 6 questions to be able to continue with the legalization of your immigration status.”
The letter ends with the following statement: “If you do not continue with this open case, you will incur the crime of contempt and will be expelled from American soil by refusing the opportunity to change your immigration status.”
Julie Cyphers, an attorney with the Santa Rosa-based immigrant advocacy nonprofit VIDAS, said the immigration notices from the federal government would not include such threats or demands.
Cyphers pointed out that the notice Ramirez received has numerous typos and grammatical errors and that the information is “legally inaccurate.”
Jacqueline Watson, first vice president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, called the letter “utterly fake” and “not at all what a Notice to Appear looks like.” Both Cyphers and Watson emphasized that completing a civic questionnaire is not required of those seeking a green card.
“Oh, and the failure to appear before the immigration court is a civil matter,” Watson said in an email. “Immigration courts do not have criminal contempt powers.”
It was his sister in Cloverdale who suggested during a visit to Sonoma County that he consult with immigrant advocates at La Familia Sana, a local nonprofit. Staff there told him he was likely the victim of a scam, and they arranged to record one of the video meetings the attorney had scheduled.
A screen shot of the bogus online court hearing that was employed to scam a Washington state man out of $18,000 as he sought to normalize his residency status in the United States. (Courtesy of La Familia Sana)
In that meeting, Fernandez, the purported attorney, appears along with someone dressed as a judge. The entire meeting was conducted in Spanish, which would never happen, Watson said.
In a real proceeding, she added, only limited parts of the hearing would be translated into Spanish.
“The bulk of the proceedings are in English,” Watson said in an email. “The judge would certainly not, as a general rule, communicate directly with the respondents for the record in a language other than English.”
To the trained eye and ear, the hearing had markings of a con job. Cyphers, who consulted with Ramirez about his fraud case, said it was one of the more egregious she’s come across.
Cyphers also said immigration hearings are held in English and interpreters are made available for those who speak another language. What’s more, the Department of Justice uses the Webex platform for its virtual immigration hearings. It does not use Google Meet for such purposes, Watson noted.
Other signs were less conspicuous, Cyphers said. The errors in the documents he was asked to sign can be easily identified by an immigration attorney, she said, but “wouldn’t necessarily be obvious to an applicant.”
“It’s incredible the lengths that these people will go through,” she said of those who impersonate attorneys, immigration officials and even judges.
“We’ve had a lot of cases of people posing as ICE agents demanding money,” she said.
Cyphers said immigrants should never use an attorney without a proven track record in the community or a trusted nonprofit. Word-of-mouth recommendations from other clients are only a starting point. Without more vetting of those purported legal services, immigrants can be susceptible marks for unscrupulous cons.
Watson, who viewed a video clip of the hearing Ramirez recorded, said the format was all wrong. She said video hearings are usually done with multiscreen views that include the DHS attorney in the picture, as well as the translator and any other attorneys on the call.
She said it’s possible to look up the name of any immigration judge online to verify whether they are legitimate federal officials. “Needless to say, there is no Eduardo Cruz in (Salt Lake City),” she said.
Fernandez did not respond to numerous emails, text messages and phone calls from The Press Democrat seeking comment. The Press Democrat informed Fernandez that he would be named in a story about the case of alleged fraud, and that an image taken from a screenshot of the recorded video would also be used.
Immigration Fraud Red Flags
The California Bar Association advises people to be wary of those who ask for cash payments or call themselves “notarios” or notaries public. Notaries public are not attorneys nor are they accredited representatives. They cannot provide legal advice or services on immigration cases.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, only two groups of people may provide legal advice in immigration cases: attorneys and accredited representatives of nonprofit religious, charitable or social service organizations established in the United States and recognized by the DOJ.
What to look out for:
Scammers often reach out on messaging platforms like WhatsApp, via text, email or social media offering immigration assistance.
Scammers will ask for personal information, including Social Security numbers, bank and address information.
Payments are often requested through Zelle or services like Ria Money Transfer.
Payments are usually requested each time the victim signs a document, a phone consultation or video meeting.
What to do:
Ask the person to provide you information of where they are licensed to practice law and to give you their bar number. Look them up on the State Bar’s website (www.calbar.ca.gov) or call the State Bar at 800-843-9053.
Make sure to get your contract in writing as well as receipts for payments you make.
If you have already made a payment, you are entitled to ask for an accounting of your bills.
Keep a paper trail. If you don’t have a bank account, use a cashier’s check.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Catholic Charities USA, The Press Democrat
Indirect payment
All that Ramirez has to show for his experience is a stack of bogus immigration forms and numerous money transfer receipts for payment of legal services and government application fees.
Ramirez said Fernandez never accepted payment directly and always had him make payments to specific individuals using Ria.
Ramirez asked the attorney why he could not send the money directly to him and was told that the “treasury department” of U.S. immigration services had designated specific individuals to receive the money on the government’s behalf.
“He never wanted me to send payments directly to him,” Ramirez said. At first, the transfers were done at Ria locations at nearby Mexican markets in Wenatchee.
“After four or five transfers, (store staff) told me I couldn’t send to these people because it could be fraud,” Ramirez said, adding that he told Fernandez what the store staff had said.
“I called him and he said, ‘No it’s not true, Señor Salvador, don’t believe what those people are telling you,’” Ramirez said.
As an alternative, the lawyer told him to send payments via Zelle, a digital payment system that allows for transfers between bank accounts.
Several of the “recipients” who accepted payments did so from Daly City, according to one of Ramirez’s many receipts for payments that ranged between $675 and $1,700. A phone number accompanied several of the receipts.
One of the recipients, Yenifer Nailin Arias Picon, told The Press Democrat by phone she didn’t know anything about the money transfers, nor did she receive any money transfers last year. She said she did not know any attorney by the name Mariano Fernandez.
Another designated recipient, Oscar Ruben Dietes Cardenas, told The Press Democrat during a May 12 phone call he didn’t know anything about an alleged case of fraud and that he did not know Fernandez. He said in Spanish that he was a “profesor.”
When The Press Democrat called him back the following day, there was only a message, “the subscriber you have dialed is not in service.”
Ramirez said once he confronted Fernandez with his belief that he’d been scammed, earlier this year, the man ended all communication.
But before that, Fernandez would repeatedly reach out to him via WhatsApp with texts and messages, reassuring Ramirez that his application for a green card had been approved, that his case was nearly complete and all that was needed was some additional payment for services rendered, according to messages reviewed by The Press Democrat.
On Aug. 14, last year Fernandez left Ramirez a voicemail message in Spanish telling him, “since your case is nearing completion, the firm needs to collect the “pro bono” fee. This fee covers the total cost of the legal services—amounting to $1,500—for all the procedural work I have carried out to bring your case to this final stage.
“Now that we are practically at the point of delivering your document, the (law firm’s) treasury department requires me to discuss this with you so that the payment can be processed,” Fernandez said in the message. “Please let me know if you can make the payment—either tomorrow or Saturday — so I can confirm this with the firm.”
Ramirez said the money he paid out amounted to all of his savings and plunged him into debt. Friends and relatives loaned him the money to make the frequent payments, he said.
After accepting that he was likely the victim of fraud, Ramirez reported the case to the Wenatchee Police Department on Dec. 10.
Police records categorized the complaint under “Fraud/Forgery.”
The only police record of the case, according to a public records request, is a one-page police blotter description. The sheet said Ramirez “CONTACTED AN ATTORNEY TO FIX IS VISA, HE ASKED FOR MORE MONEY, RP GAVE HIM MORE MONEY. RP THINKS HE WAS A VICT OF FRAUD.”
A Wenatchee police officer told Ramirez “not to give them money if they were trying to scam him,” according to the blotter.
Reached this past week, Wenatchee Police Chief Edgar Reinfeld said there was no update in the case beyond Ramirez’s initial report.
Salvador Ramirez works in an orchard on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026, in Quincy, Washington. (Jacob Ford/For The Press Democrat)
Ramirez credits the staff at Familia Sana for helping him realize he was being cheated.
For now, he’s put off his goal of obtaining a green card. When the time comes to restart that process, he said he’d only trust the staff at the nonprofit to vet a real attorney for him. A Cloverdale community member recently helped set up a GoFundMe to help him recover some of the money he lost.
“Otherwise, I don’t trust anyone,” he said. “Right now I want to focus on recovering all the money I lost to pay back family and friends who helped me. I’m in huge debt.”
You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. You can contact Staff Writer Raquel Isenberg at raquel.isenberg@pressdemocrat.com.