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  Geebo 8:01 am on July 17, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ICE, Immigration ( 14 ), Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( 3 ), police impersonation scam ( 85 ), Scams ( 1,558 )   

  Scam Calls Target Immigrants in Texas 

  

  By Greg Collier

  With the current complexity of immigration laws in the United States, many individuals, especially those in vulnerable communities, may find their legal status not only difficult to understand but also a source of fear for their personal safety. This uncertainty creates a dangerous opening for scammers who seek to exploit those fears for financial gain.

  In a recent warning issued by the Austin, Texas, Police Department, residents are being cautioned about scam calls from individuals impersonating either local law enforcement officers or agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These callers are reportedly claiming that the person being contacted is facing fraudulent criminal charges or unspecified immigration violations. The tone of the calls is designed to induce panic, pressuring the recipient into complying out of fear of arrest or deportation.

  What makes this scam particularly insidious is its appearance of legitimacy. Police have identified that many of these calls originate from numbers with a 512 area code, specifically those beginning with the prefix 974. Authorities have stated clearly that any calls appearing with this number format should be treated as fraudulent and reported immediately.

  It is important to emphasize that these types of scams are not limited to areas along the Southern Border. Communities across the country have reported similar schemes, with scammers adapting their tactics to exploit local area codes and regional law enforcement terminology in an effort to appear credible.

  Individuals should remain cautious of unsolicited phone calls, especially those involving threats related to immigration status or legal trouble. Law enforcement agencies and immigration officials do not conduct official business in this manner, particularly when it comes to demanding immediate responses or payments. Anyone who receives such a call should not engage with the caller and should instead report the incident to local authorities or relevant federal agencies.

  As long as confusion persists around immigration policy and enforcement, scammers will continue to take advantage of that uncertainty. Staying informed and vigilant is key to protecting oneself and one’s community.

   

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  Geebo 8:00 am on August 7, 2020 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Homeland Security ( 4 ), ICE, impersonation scam ( 187 ), inheritance ( 8 ), police scam ( 38 ), Scams ( 1,558 )   

  Inheritance scam accuses you of being a terrorist 

  

  Residents just outside of Chicago are reporting receiving not only a scam email but some residents have reported receiving a scam letter in their mailboxes as well. In both instances, the scam threatens to have you arrested as a terrorist if you do not comply.

  The letter/email purports to be from the ‘Department of Homeland Security-ICE’ and demand that you send $580 in order to collect on an inheritance from the International Monetary Fund otherwise known as the IMF. However, if you don’t send your $580 within 48 hours, you will be assumed to be a terrorist, tracked down and arrested. The letter/email is then signed off by an officer of the ‘National Drug Law Enforcement Agency’. There’s even a phone number listed to call in Orange County, California. The scam is said to originate from an email address of ‘@homeland-ice.us’.

  Were you able to see what exactly tips the reader off that this is a scam? First off, if there ever was a warrant out for your arrest, you’re not going to receive an email about it or a photocopied email left in your mailbox. Secondly, any email from a federal government organization is going to come from a .gov email address. Anyone can purchase a .us domain name and it holds no governmental value. Lastly, there is no ‘National Drug Law Enforcement Agency’ in the United States. While we do have the DEA, there is no NDLEA which turns out is the Federal agency in Nigeria charged with enforcing that country’s drug policy. Which means that this scam is coming from overseas.

  While this scam may be humorous in its approach, it shows the prevalence of these impersonation scams. In too many scams, the scammer will pose as a member of some domestic law enforcement agency demanding money to make some perceived legal trouble to go away. Just keep in mind that no police force or law enforcement agency will demand money from you over the phone. If you do happen to owe some kind of fine, notices for that will always be delivered in the mail and won’t be a photocopied email.

   
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  Geebo 8:36 am on July 11, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ICE, Immigration ( 14 )   

  Are immigration raids what we really need? 

  

  Immigration has been a contentious topic in our country since the start of the 2016 Presidential campaign. Today, the focus seems to be on the country’s southern border even though most people here illegally are from overseas on expired visas. However, demonizing a certain group of immigrants is nothing new in our country’s history. In the 19th Century, Irish and Italian immigrants were being openly discriminated against even though that seems unimaginable today. It seems that every generation or so, certain politicians seem to inevitably stir up anti-immigrant sentiment and today’s climate is no exception.

  In a move that seems more like an intimidation tactic than a law enforcement operation, the government has made it known that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will be conducting raids against thousands of undocumented families. According to the New York Times, investigators might even detain immigrants who happened to be on the scene, even though they were not targets of the raids. The government already knows about many of the families who are here illegally and have given them notice to leave the country. However, these raids may be mostly pointless as ICE officers have no legal authority to forcibly enter someone’s home.

  [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaL-7p9DeSc%5D

  Instead of expending resources on these raids, why isn’t the government trying to make the path to citizenship to easier? Wouldn’t it be better to have new groups of taxpaying citizens rather than having a targeted group of people fearing for their well-being?

  As we previously mentioned in this post, immigration scares are nothing new in our country but they go against one of the tenets of our great nation. The poem on the Statue of Liberty known as “The New Colossus”, seems to be falling on unironically deaf ears.

  Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
  With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
  Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
  A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
  Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
  Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
  Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
  The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
  “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
  With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
  Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
  The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
  I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

  Now it seems that the Government is trying to close that golden door on the very people that the Statue of Liberty is supposed to welcome.