Gothamist – By Samir Ferdowsi | April 14, 2025
Two bills aimed at protecting against immigration services fraud will be up for debate in the City Council next week.
The City Council Committees on Consumer and Worker Protection as well as Immigration will have a joint hearing to crack down on fraudsters looking to prey on the influx of migrants in New York City.
One bill, Intro 205, sponsored by Councilmember Shahna Hanif, looks at how messaging around immigration services is positioned around New York CIty. Another, Intro 980, sponsored by Councilmmeber Julie Won, looks at boosting penalties for immigration service providers that violate terms of their service.
The measures comes as the Trump administration seeks to deport documented and undocumented immigrants alike, sparking outsize fear in the city’s booming immigrant population. Immigration scams have been skyrocketing in the city in recent years, Gothamist reported, has hundreds of thousands of migrants have poured into the city.
“Fraudulent providers take advantage of that fear and anxiety in communities, and people sell services that may not be legal or helpful to people,” Manuel Castro, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, told Gothamist last year.
Hanif’s bill looks to meet these migrants in their communities and curb misleading information to those looking for essential help.
“This bill would require the outreach to include information about common fraudulent schemes,” a summary of Hanif’s bill says. “And how to avoid them and to be conducted through specific media, including television, internet, radio, print, subway advertisements, and LinkNYC kiosks.”
The bill would also require the city to bolster its reporting of such schemes.
Won’s bill looks at increasing penalties for violating immigration assistant requirements and regulations.
As it stands, the first violation comes with a civil penalty of no less than $500 and no more than $5,000, according to the bill. After that, any violation is a civil penalty anywhere from $1,000-$10,000. Should Won’s bill be enacted, the penalties would jump to $7,500-$10,000 for the first violation, and $18,000-20,000 for each additional violation.
Some requirements of immigration services in the city include providing clients with a plain language contract in both English and their native language, giving clients a three-day grace period to cancel contracts for a full refund, and keeping all documents and forms for three years to distribute to clients on demand for no fee.
The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the Council chambers.
