According to the DOJ, Collins “never worked for the United States” and “had no power to provide victims of her schemes with Visas or employment” with Border Patrol.
The woman is now facing up to 20 years in federal prison for the two counts of wire fraud and another three years for the impersonation charges. She is also facing a maximum fine of $250,000.
She is expected to make her initial court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Julie Hampton this Thursday.
Lora Ries, an immigration policy expert with the Heritage Foundation, explained that “the needless complexity of immigration law and the fragmented immigration bureaucracy spread across five federal departments are fertile ground for fraudsters.”
Ries, who is director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told Fox News Digital that Democrats “helped create these systemic conditions because they facilitate illegal immigration.”
CBP SEIZES MASSIVE METH HAUL WORTH MILLIONS STASHED IN SECRET TILE SHIPMENT
People return to the Mexican side of the Rio Grande river in Brownsville, Texas, on May 11, 2023, after dropping off migrants on the U.S. side. The U.S. ended its 40-month Covid-19 emergency and discarded the Title 42 law on the same day. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)
“This perpetrator exploiting that confusing and scattered system is a consequence of their own making,” Ries said.
She noted that “Congress should greatly simplify immigration law and consolidate many of the immigration agencies for a better immigration system and to prevent such fraud.”
This comes as the DOJ and Department of Homeland Security ramp up the federal government’s investigation into a massive fraud scheme largely involving the Somali immigrant community in Minnesota. Federal officials raided 22 alleged fraud sites Tuesday morning.
The raids center on federal fraud investigations into largely Somali-owned businesses, including childcare facilities that registered their daycare with the state but were allegedly billing for care that was not provided.
EMMER SAYS MN FRAUD RAIDS SEND ‘CRYSTAL CLEAR’ MESSAGE AFTER FEDS HIT DOZENS OF SITES
Law enforcement officers seen getting into a vehicle outside of Quality learning center in Minneapolis on April 28, 2026. (Fox News)
Following news of the raids breaking, Vice President JD Vance, head of the administration’s fraud task force, remarked that the “task force and the DOJ will be relentless in exposing these fraudsters wherever they may be hiding.”
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Commenting on the Minnesota crackdown, Ries told Fox News Digital that “Americans, particularly Minnesotans, are pleased to see the ongoing pursuit of justice against fraud in that state.”
“We’ve only seen a glimpse of both the immigration fraud and welfare fraud that have occurred in Minnesota,” she said, adding, “Significant criminal and immigration consequences are needed for all the perpetrators to achieve justice and to send a message to others throughout the country not to engage in fraud.”
