Five individuals, including top law enforcement officers in Louisiana, have been arrested for an alleged scheme to obtain temporary legal status for illegal immigrants.
The suspects include four current and former law enforcement officials and a businessman who allegedly collaborated in the plot.
Federal authorities filed an indictment in the Western District of Louisiana against Hiteshkumar Patel on July 2. The indictment alleges that Patel orchestrated a visa fraud scheme using the H-2B temporary worker program through two of his businesses.
Patel allegedly carried out a sweeping visa fraud conspiracy between 2018 and 2021. He is accused of using his companies to create fake job orders to obtain H-2B visas for foreign nationals. He allegedly submitted the H-2B petitions and charged workers fees while giving them few or no real work opportunities once they landed in the US.
The operation involved fabricated documents and forged signatures. He listed real companies — some of which were not aware that they were named — and concocted fake work orders to gain the visas. Patel allegedly went so far as to create forged letters of support.
If convicted they need to put these fools under the jail.
— The Union of Black America (@BurnEr92976227) July 17, 2025
“A group of Louisiana police chiefs are accused of colluding in a decade-long scheme to falsify police reports to help foreign nationals get visas meant for crime victims or witnesses.” pic.twitter.com/vcvnBPx3PQ
“In or around April 2020, PATEL submitted a TLC for H.K. Enterprise, LLC, listing Employer A as the worksite and stating that Employer A would employ approximately 20 landscape laborers,” the indictment read. “In fact, Employer A had never authorized such an application, and the signature on the accompanying letter of support was forged.”
The businessman is alleged to have instructed workers to deceive immigration officers. The indictment claims he “instructed foreign nationals to falsely tell U.S. consular officers that they were being hired by the companies listed on their visa applications, even though those companies had not offered them employment.”
Many of the workers paid Patel thousands of dollars because they believed they were getting lawful employment in the United States. “PATEL required foreign workers to pay him fees ranging from $1,500 to over $6,000 in exchange for promises of employment in the United States under the H-2B visa program,” the indictment read.
The defendant allegedly used threats and intimidation to keep the workers from reporting the scheme to the police. He told them “their visas could be revoked if they did not comply with his instructions or if they spoke to authorities.”
But this was not the extent of Patel’s alleged plot. The indictment claims he worked with several police officers to falsely claim at least some of the workers were “victims of qualifying crimes committed in the United States,” which allowed them to apply for temporary protected status.
The officers submitted phony police reports claiming the workers “had been victims of armed robberies or aggravated assaults, when no such crimes had occurred.”
“For example, on or about October 11, 2019, CO-CONSPIRATOR 2, acting in his capacity as a municipal police officer, filed a false report stating that a foreign national had been the victim of an armed robbery at a gas station in Louisiana. The report included a fabricated suspect description and incident narrative. PATEL later used this report to support the foreign national’s U-visa application.”
The U-visa program grants legal status to immigrants who were victims of crimes if they cooperate with law enforcement.
The authorities are charging each of the five men with conspiracy to commit visa fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering. Patel is also being charged for allegedly bribing the officers to participate in his scheme.
“People paid thousands of dollars to manufacture that status to get a shortcut to the privilege of staying in our great nation,” Jonathan Tapp, the special agent in charge of the FBI in New Orleans, said during a Wednesday press conference. “We expect law enforcement officers to protect the public and to honor their trust, not to sell that trust and the honor of their badges for personal gain.”
Federal authorities discovered the scheme last year. They conducted an investigation and found “an unusual concentration of armed robberies of people who were not from Louisiana,” according to US Attorney Alexander Van Hook.
“In fact, the armed robberies never took place and those listed on the applications were never victims of crrimes,” Van Hook added.
Patel allegedly paid the officers $5,000 for each fake report. Van Hook noted that over “hundreds of visas were approved.”
If convicted, the defendants could face up to 20 years in prison with up to $250,000 in fines.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left's lies, new legislation wasn't needed to secure our border, just a new president.
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