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A Florida woman is facing charges for allegedly submitting a fake asylum application. Prosecutors say she provided false information on immigration documents. The case comes as the government ramps up efforts to tighten screening for immigration applications.
Andrea C. Correa, 37, from Sunrise, Florida, filed an asylum application claiming her client was a victim of political persecution—even though the client had told her that wasn’t true. Despite knowing this, Correa went ahead and prepared the application and sent it to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
According to U.S. Attorney Hayden O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida, Correa has submitted more than 1,000 asylum applications since 2013. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
The case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate.
Immigration attorneys have long warned about the risks of hiring legal assistants or notaries instead of credited lawyers for U.S. residency applications. According to Cuban news outlet, Cibercuba, Correa is a legal assistant in Miami. Asylum applications press unique challenges, as their eligibility criteria are narrow.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), only people who have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution “on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion” can apply for protection.
As part of an effort to enhance screening measures, USCIS recently announced plans to collect social media identifiers from individuals applying for immigration-related benefits, including asylum seekers. The measure is part of an effort to enhance identity verification and national security screening processes.
The new requirement will apply to nine forms, including:
- N-400 (Application for Naturalization)
- I-131 (Application for Travel Document)
- I-192 (Application for Advance Permission to Enter as Nonimmigrant)
- I-485 (Application for Adjustment of Status)
- I-589 (Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal)
- I-590 (Registration for Classification as Refugee)
- I-730 (Refugee/Asylee Relative Petition)
- I-751 (Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence)
- I-829 (Petition by Investor to Remove Conditions on Permanent Resident Status)
The initiative was outlined in a 60-day notice published in the Federal Register in which USCIS stated that the collection of social media data is necessary to comply with Executive Order 14161 signed on January 20, 2025:
“This collection of information is necessary to comply with section 2 of the Executive order (E.O.) entitled ‘Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats’, which directs implementation of uniform vetting standards and requires the collection of all information necessary for a rigorous vetting and screening of all grounds of inadmissibility or bases for the denial of immigration-related benefits”
Asylum case filings with USCIS nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023, per a DHS report. Venezuela and Cuba dominated asylum applications in 2023, making up more than one-third (39 percent) of all applications combined. Asylum grant rates vary by nationalities, with Mexico and Central American countries having amongst the lowest rates and the most applications filed.
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