The immigration lawyer Willy Allen warned this Monday that the gravest mistake an immigrant can make during a migration appointment is to lie, and that a single falsehood uncovered at any point in the process can cause the applicant to "lose everything."
Allen made these statements during his weekly live program alongside journalist Tania Costa, where he explained which behaviors raise red flags for officials during a immigration interview in the United States.
"The biggest problem is always the truth. There are questions that you will be asked in every interview. There are dozens of questions that are asked of you and of everyone," the lawyer noted.
According to Allen, when officials detect inconsistencies, they are almost always lies. "They can be serious lies or minor lies. But lies about previous marriages, lies about where you’ve lived, lies about your participation, lies about work..."
The lawyer explained that in status adjustment interviews—especially those for permanent residency—officials specifically look for contradictions in the details.
One of the examples he mentioned is particularly relevant for Cubans. "If you worked as a tobacco seller in Cuba, well, you didn't have to be a member of the Communist Party, but if you are a doctor in Cuba, why weren't you a member of the party?"
In addition to political affiliation, Allen listed other factors that officials scrutinize closely: tattoos and their meanings, criminal records in the country of origin, history of addresses and cities of residence, and the number of marriages.
"There are officials who punish you based on the addresses where you have lived, the cities. There are officials who punish you regarding marriages, how many you have had, why you got married?" he warned.
The lawyer also noted that officials can check if the applicant has received financial assistance in the United States, which may have implications in certain cases.
His advice was clear: "You must tell the truth even if you are afraid to do so. It's better to be told no. I can always win with your truth, but if you tell a lie and it gets uncovered at any moment, you've lost everything."
As a concrete warning, Allen mentioned the case of the former Cuban pilot Luis Raúl González-Pardo, sentenced last Thursday to seven months in prison in a federal court in Jacksonville, Florida, after pleading guilty to immigration fraud.
Allen stated that González-Pardo "is singing like a crazy canary" and that much of the information he provided helped implicate Raúl Castro, although he emphasized that the pilot "lied and lied about some pretty big lies."
This case arises in the context of unprecedented immigration tightening: in January 2026, the approvals for residency for Cubans fell to just 15 in a month despite receiving more than 7,000 applications, while the detentions of Cubans by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement increased by 463% since October 2025.
"Many of the cases currently going to court in the United States are due to fraud," Allen concluded, in a warning that carries particular weight at a time when immigration officials have more discretion and pressure than ever to detect irregularities.
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