What is document fraud for immigration

| by Max Soni

What is document fraud for immigration?

Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group – a second-generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek, a Brooklyn-born attorney who grew up working in his father’s law firm and went on to defend cases that made national headlines. Over 40 years of combined experience defending clients in cases that others said couldn’t be won. In 2022, Netflix released a series about one of Todd’s clients – Anna Delvey – and we’ve handled everything from the Ghislaine Maxwell juror misconduct case to Alec Baldwin stalking allegations. If you’re reading this, you probably need to understand what document fraud means for your immigration case and what prosecutors can actually charge you with. This article explains the law, the penalties, and what happens when the government accuses you of using or creating fake immigration documents.

Document fraud means using fake papers to get immigration benefits

18 U.S.C. § 1546 makes it a federal crime to forge, counterfeit, alter, or falsely make any visa, green card, work permit, border crossing card, or other immigration document. But it goes further than that – you can get charged just for using a fake document, possessing one, or even accepting one from someone else. The statute covers basically every interaction you might have with a fraudulent immigration document.

What counts as document fraud? Fake passports, counterfeit green cards, altered work permits, forged I-94 arrival records, fraudulent visas – anything the government issues to prove you’re allowed to be here or work here. And in February 2025, the Second Circuit clarified something important: the law doesn’t just cover fake documents. It also covers real documents that you got through fraud or false statements. That means if you lied on your green card application and got approved, prosecutors can charge you for possessing that legitimate green card because you obtained it fraudulently.

Most people don’t realize how broad this statute is until they’re already charged. You don’t have to be the person who created the fake document – just using it once can land you in federal court facing years in prison.

The penalties are harsh and they’ve gotten worse

Basic violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1546 carry up to 10 years in federal prison. That’s the starting point. But if prosecutors can connect your document fraud to drug trafficking, the maximum jumps to 15 years. If they connect it to terrorism – even loosely – you’re looking at 20 years maximum under 18 U.S.C. § 1547.

Federal judges don’t mess around with immigration document fraud. In March 2025 alone, immigration offenses made up 57.5% of all federal criminal convictions – that’s 6,302 immigration convictions out of 10,965 total federal convictions. The government is prosecuting these cases aggressively, and conviction rates are extremely high once charges are filed.

Recent cases show what these penalties look like. Jorge Antonio Velez-Lopez got 12 months for passport fraud in February 2025 and lost his citizenship. Biodun Okunnuo used 17 different aliases – she got more than 4 years. Felix Aguilar-Matias got three months and citizenship revocation in June 2025. Even if you avoid maximum sentences, you’re still losing your status and likely getting deported after serving time.

You also face mandatory deportation proceedings. A document fraud conviction makes you deportable and bars you from most future immigration benefits – you can’t adjust status, you can’t naturalize, and you probably can’t even get a visitor visa ever again. One conviction destroys your entire immigration future.

ICE and HSI investigate these cases with forensic labs

Homeland Security Investigations runs the only federal crime lab dedicated exclusively to analyzing travel and identity documents. Their forensic examiners look at passports, visas, green cards, birth certificates – they know how to spot fakes and they know how to prove fraud in court.

When you use a fake document at an airport, at a USCIS interview, or even at a job that runs E-Verify, you’re creating evidence. HSI agents pull security footage, subpoena employment records, interview coworkers, and build cases that are hard to defend. In March 2025, HSI Maryland arrested three people who arranged fraudulent marriages to get green cards for foreign nationals – they didn’t just charge the immigrants, they charged everyone involved in the scheme including the U.S. citizens who agreed to fake marriages.

The government doesn’t need to catch you making the fake document. They just need to prove you knew it was fake when you used it. That’s a much lower bar than most people realize. If you bought a green card from someone for $5,000, prosecutors will argue you obviously knew it wasn’t legitimate – why else would you pay thousands of dollars instead of applying through USCIS?

What the government has to prove and where defenses exist

To convict you under 18 U.S.C. § 1546, prosecutors must prove you acted “knowingly” – that you knew the document was fake or obtained through fraud. If you genuinely believed your work permit was real because someone told you it was legitimate, that’s a defense. But you’ll have to prove it convincingly to a skeptical jury.

The government also has to prove the document is actually fraudulent. A green card printed on regular paper with spelling errors is obvious fraud. But if you used someone else’s real documents, or if you submitted an application with one false statement among dozens of true statements, the case gets more complicated. Our job is to challenge the government’s evidence about knowledge and intent, and we look for technical defenses around venue and Fourth Amendment issues that create leverage for negotiation.

Getting charged doesn’t mean you’re out of options

If you’ve been charged with document fraud, you’re fighting two battles – one in criminal court, one in immigration court – and they affect each other constantly. Your first priority is keeping yourself out of prison and avoiding deportation.

In criminal court, we look for ways to get charges reduced or dismissed. Sometimes the government’s evidence is weak, the forensic analysis was flawed, they can’t prove knowledge, or there are Fourth Amendment issues. When the evidence is strong, we focus on minimizing sentencing through cooperation, acceptance of responsibility, and demonstrating ties to the United States.

In immigration court, a document fraud conviction triggers removal proceedings but doesn’t automatically mean deportation. You might qualify for cancellation of removal, asylum, withholding of removal, or relief under the Convention Against Torture. If you have U.S. citizen family members, long residence here, or persecution fears in your home country, immigration judges have discretion – our job is giving them reasons to exercise it in your favor.

At Spodek Law Group, we handle both sides because they have to be coordinated. A plea deal that looks good in criminal court might destroy your immigration options completely. You need attorneys who understand how these systems intersect – we’ve been doing this for decades, defending immigration fraud cases that others said couldn’t be won.

Federal prosecutors don’t drop document fraud cases because you’re a good person. They drop them when the evidence doesn’t support a conviction or when your attorney creates reasonable doubt. If you’re under investigation or already charged, call us. We’re available 24/7.