Attorney Exploits Humanitarian Visas, but Policy Choices Made Fraud More Likely

The AP investigation into attorney Alexandra Lozano's alleged scheme—fabricating stories of domestic abuse and human trafficking to file U visa and T visa applications without clients' knowledge—is a clear case of fraud that harms individual immigrants and undermines public confidence in protections Congress created for crime victims. Lozano permanently resigned from the Washington State Bar on May 26, 2026, and faces multiple lawsuits. But focusing solely on one bad actor misses a systemic problem: the administration's own policies are making such fraud more likely. The administration has cut USCIS processing capacity dramatically. According to data from the American Immigration Lawyers Association cited in the AP report, USCIS approved 8.3 million applications in FY2025 compared to 11.4 million in FY2024—a 27% drop. USCIS remains a fee-funded agency, with about 96% of its budget coming from filing fees rather than congressional appropriations, so these cuts reflect policy choices. Longer processing times and tighter eligibility create a bottleneck that makes legitimate applicants more vulnerable to predatory attorneys promising shortcuts. The appropriate response is not to weaken U visa protections or to blame immigrants for fraud they didn't authorize, but to increase USCIS appropriations, hire more adjudicators, reduce processing times, and strengthen oversight of immigration attorneys.