The New Life Technical Academy in Norcross threw elaborate graduation parties for its students and their families, complete with red caps and gowns, diplomas and balloons.
There was a lot to celebrate as so much was at stake for the students. Many are immigrants living without legal status in the U.S. They hoped their diplomas would help them qualify for a federal program that temporarily suspends the threat of deportation and grants work permits.
But the diplomas turned out to be worthless, Gwinnett County police said, because New Life is not accredited as it had claimed and was even using the name of another school without permission. So the government has delayed or rejected the students’ applications for deportation deferrals.
Immigration attorneys say it’s possible more such cases could arise in the coming months following President Barack Obama’s recent executive actions on immigration. The president’s sweeping plan could offer up to 5 million more immigrants a three-year reprieve from deportation and a way to work legally in the U.S.
More than 800 students and $2.4 million of their money may be involved in the case involving New Life Technical Academy, Gwinnett police said. Seventy of them are now suing the school, seeking refunds. This week, two officials tied to the school turned themselves in at the Gwinnett jail to face multiple fraud charges.
Miriam Bravo of Atlanta is among those suing the Norcross school. A Mexican native, she says she paid New Life $1,500 to take classes there toward a high school diploma. She dreams of working in pediatrics. But she also enrolled to meet educational requirements in the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
That program provides deportation deferrals and work permits to immigrants who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children. To qualify, immigrants must be in school, have graduated from high school, obtained a GED or be honorably discharged from the U.S. military.
For help navigating the application process for DACA, the lawsuit says, school officials referred Bravo to a woman they misrepresented as an attorney. The federal government responded to Bravo’s application for a deportation deferral this month, seeking more information about New Life, including whether it is accredited. Her diploma says the school is accredited by the Georgia Accrediting Commission, though the head of that nonprofit commission said it is not. Bravo now fears the worst.
“It is like starting all over — wasting your money and wasting your time,” said Bravo, a housekeeper and mother of four U.S.-born children. “Right now, I don’t even know what is going to happen.”
Stanley and Yessica Jean, a married coupled identified in the lawsuit as the school’s managers, turned themselves in at the Gwinnett jail this week. They are facing multiple financial identity fraud charges. Their attorney declined to comment for this story.
Reports about such cases have risen over the past two years. The Federal Trade Commission received 891 complaints about immigration services in 2013, up from 746 the year before. Fear among immigrants who are living in the shadows and reluctant to expose themselves to authorities could be depressing those numbers, said Monica Vaca, an assistant director for the FTC, which files federal lawsuits to stop deceptive practices.
“What I hear from advocates is absolutely that — that folks are nervous about complaining — and because of that our complaint numbers understate the problem,” Vaca said.
That vulnerability among immigrants without legal status is precisely why swindlers prey on them. In some scams, people misrepresent themselves as immigration attorneys, take their clients’ money but do nothing or little for them or give them bad legal advice. Others charge for government documents that are free. At the same time, the swindlers are betting the immigrants won’t go to the police.
Since Obama announced his executive actions on immigration last month, attorneys have been warning immigrants to steer clear of unqualified people.
“It’s a prominent issue here in the state of Georgia and in Alabama where people … say they are attorneys or that they are able to file this application for the individual,” said Jonathan Eoloff, the director of immigration services for the Latin American Association in Atlanta. “They will say: ‘We can get you a work permit. We will apply for asylum.’ That ends up putting the person in (deportation) proceedings. And that is when they come to our office.”
Officials at New Life went to great lengths to convince students their organization was legitimate, Gwinnett Police Detective Nermin Cultarevic said. As he outlined the case at his department’s headquarters, Cultarevic pointed to an official-looking student ID that was issued by the school in Norcross. He then reached inside a box beside his desk and pulled out a red gown he said a student wore at one of the school’s graduation events.
“They went out of their way to convince these people that they are real. They even threw these lavish graduation ceremonies,” he said. “It’s absolutely ridiculous. And these people actually called their entire families to attend these graduations.”
Cultarevic said he sympathizes with the victims because he is an immigrant himself from Bosnia. He said he has reached out to federal immigration authorities on behalf of the former students to clarify they are victims of fraud and not perpetrators. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is also investigating the case, Cultarevic said. An ICE spokesman declined to comment, citing his agency’s policy concerning “potential or active investigations.”
Norcross attorney Richard Samms is representing the former students in their lawsuit against the school.
“Unfortunately, many of these students had no choice but to resort to less than reputable entities to better themselves,” he said, “because they tried to get into mainstream schools — government schools in particular — and were denied because of a lack of Social Security numbers and other evidence of legal status.”
Some of the former students are now faced with the task of starting over again in their long quests to better their lives. Nuvia Villeda, a hairdresser from Honduras who now lives in Norcross, said she paid $900 to enroll at New Life Technical Academy for her high school diploma. The mother of two children, she said she took classes there for four months as she worked toward her dream of becoming a medical assistant.
“I feel sad because it was a waste of time,” she said in Spanish, her voice edged with emotion. “It hurts a lot. I feel ashamed.”
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