DHS moves to prosecute immigration lawyers for filing fraudulent asylum claims

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has directed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to crack down on fraudulent asylum claims, including taking legal action against immigration attorneys who have a long practice of coaching their clients "to conceal their past" and/or "outright lie" in their asylum applications, DHS said in a Tuesday press release.

Under the directive, ICE is to adopt anti-fraud procedures in order to better implement 8 USC 1324c(d), a law that provides penalties for document fraud. This will enable ICE attorneys to take enforcement action against immigration lawyers who file false allegations in immigration court, according to DHS.

"For many years, millions of illegal aliens have committed fraud in our immigration system. No place is this more rampant than in immigration court," said DHS General Counsel James Percival in a press release. "Protection claims like asylum are intended to cover unique and narrow circumstances, but it is standard practice for immigration attorneys representing illegal aliens to assert that virtually every illegal alien is going to be persecuted or tortured in his or her home country. Historically, ICE has depended on the discipline of immigration judges and the enforcement of criminal fraud laws to deter this conduct, but ICE has its own tools. Now, thanks to this directive, ICE attorneys have greater authority to enforce the law and stop the abuse of our asylum system by illegal aliens and attorneys."

The Department of Homeland Security said the directive enforces President Donald Trump's March 2025 presidential memorandum titled, "Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and Federal Court."

The order, aimed, in part, at restoring integrity to the US immigration system, states: "The immigration system—where rampant fraud and meritless claims have supplanted the constitutional and lawful bases upon which the President exercises core powers under Article II of the United States Constitution is likewise replete with examples of unscrupulous behavior by attorneys and law firms."

"For instance," the order continues, "the immigration bar, and powerful Big Law pro bono practices, frequently coach clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances when asserting their asylum claims, all in an attempt to circumvent immigration policies enacted to protect our national security and deceive the immigration authorities and courts into granting them undeserved relief."

"This fraud in turn undermines the integrity of our immigration laws and the legal profession more broadly—to say nothing of the undeniable, tragic consequences of the resulting mass illegal immigration, whether in terms of heinous crimes against innocent victims like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, or Rachel Morin, or the enormous drain on taxpayer resources intended for Americans," the order reads.
 

US immigration officials, including Tom Homan, have repeatedly warned about abuses in the asylum system, particularly during the Biden administration, when nearly all migrants who illegally entered the US but claimed, without evidence, to be escaping persecution in their home countries were automatically granted asylum for an extensive time period. Additionally, CNN recently interviewed a Mexican woman who said she was waiting for Trump's term to end to come to the US, where she intended to claim asylum.