WHO: Senator Majority Coalition Leader Senator Jeff Klein

Assemblyman Marcos Crespo, Chair of the Assembly Task Force on New Americans Senator Ruben Diaz, Sponsor of Immigration Services Anti Fraud Legislation

Karen Kithen Yau Executive Director of the Coalition for Asian American Children & Families

Alfredo Placeres President of the NYS Federation of Hispanic Chambers of Commerce

Sylvia Mata President of the League of United Latin American Citizens/LULAC – 347-570-3314

Others

WHAT: Immigrant advocates and policymakers will announce tougher measures passed by the New York State Legislature to discourage rampant immigrant assistance service fraud. With over 2 million non-citizen residents and another 2.1 million naturalized US citizens living in New York, the anti fraud measures are the most sweeping and helpful to millions of New Yorkers. The legislation will soon be delivered to Governor Cuomo for his signature or veto.

Federal immigration reform proposals are moving quickly in Washington DC. The US Senate passed proposal earlier this month and House of Representatives will pass their reform package by October.

Passage of immigration reform will open flood gates of immigrants seeking assistance with federal requirements. Recently a sweep by federal and New York City law enforcement agencies found over 220 immigration service providers operating outside the limits of the law and issued over $288,000 in fines. Surveys on this type of fraud in other major US cities have found that over 40% of immigration assistance services operations are fraudulent.

WHEN: Thursday, August 1, 2013 at 11:00 AM

WHERE: Room 1000, 10th Floor of the Asian American/Asian Research Institute at CUNY

25 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036

212-869-0182/0187

WHY: Immigration assistance services fraud is a serious problem facing the more than two million New Yorkers who are non-citizens, including some 800,000 who are considered undocumented immigrants. Many immigrants looking for assistance with federal immigration matters have been defrauded and have lost their life savings trying to navigate our immigration system. With federal immigration reform on the horizon and a rush of huge number of immigrants seeking to qualify for the new Registered Provisional Immigrant (RPI) status, it is anticipated that mass scale immigration services fraud will be committed. Tougher measures at the State level to discourage and punish immigration services fraud are needed and should be in place prior to the enactment of federal immigration reform.