The scope of the impersonation problem remains partially obscured. The Federal Trade Commission reported over one million identity theft incidents last year, with a 20% rise in losses, but the full scale of AI-driven legal impersonation scams is not yet quantified. Immigration attorneys including South Florida-based Angel Leal have had their identities co-opted by fraudsters; the extent to which this affects other practitioners is unclear. The EOIR Fraud and Abuse Prevention Program accepts reports of immigration fraud, but regulatory response timelines and enforcement actions remain undisclosed.
Attorneys should monitor this issue closely. Scammers now use deepfake videos and fake online hearings to promise "guaranteed approvals," targeting immigrants who cannot easily verify legitimacy. The Lozano case demonstrates that humanitarian visa oversight has significant gaps, and regulatory investigations are underway. More immediately, immigration practitioners face pressure to abandon digital presence—social media, websites, online directories—to protect their reputations from identity theft, which paradoxically removes them from spaces where legitimate clients search for help. Firms should review their own AI vendor relationships for ethical compliance and consider whether their online verification methods can withstand deepfake technology.