The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced its intention to impose a fine of $470,584 on New York attorney Suraj Raj Singh, whom it accuses of submitting fraudulent documents in dozens of asylum applications. If the sanction is confirmed, it would be the largest civil fine imposed to date on an immigration attorney under the anti-fraud policy initiated by the administration of President Donald Trump.
According to a report this Wednesday from Fox News, Singh is alleged to have prepared and submitted 118 false documents distributed across 54 immigration cases. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claims that the accounts of persecution included in those applications were "identical or nearly identical in language and content," with narratives that were either copied or substantially similar to one another.
Singh's legal practice primarily represents citizens of India seeking asylum before immigration courts in various states across the country.
The amount claimed by ICE corresponds to the maximum allowed by federal law under 8 U.S.C. § 1324c(d), which authorizes civil penalties for document fraud related to immigration processes.
The General Counsel for the DHS, James Percival, defended the agency's actions by stating that "fraudulent asylum claims threaten the safety of the American people, undermine our immigration system, and delay the removal of dangerous illegal immigrants and criminals."
Percival added that, under Trump's presidency and the direction of DHS Secretary Mullin, the administration will continue to hold lawyers accountable who allegedly use false documents to support immigration applications.
In a message posted on his X account, the official was even more emphatic: "Before President Trump took office, lawyers like this simply acted with impunity."
For its part, the DHS confirmed on its social media that ICE is seeking a fine exceeding $474,000 as part of the government's strategy to "put an end to the abuse of the immigration system."
The fine is not yet final
The DHS clarified that the notification issued against Singh does not constitute a final sanction, but rather a proposed civil action. The lawyer has the right to respond to the allegations and defend himself before an administrative judge before a final decision is made.
This is the second case in which the Department of Homeland Security invokes this legal provision to seek civil penalties against an immigration attorney.
The first was that of attorney Vinod Doddamani, against whom ICE issued five notices of intent to fine on June 22, 2026. In that case, the government is seeking $255,232 for the alleged submission of 64 fraudulent documents across 32 cases, also featuring virtually identical accounts of persecution.
Both actions respond to a directive signed by Percival on May 26, 2026, which instructed DHS attorneys to intensify measures against fraud in asylum applications through fines, cease-and-desist orders, and disciplinary referrals against professionals who submit allegedly false claims.
Major crackdown against immigration fraud
The investigation is part of a broader strategy by the Trump administration to combat immigration fraud. In this context, the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, recently revealed that agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) potentially identified thousands of foreign workers linked to fraudulent schemes, which, according to authorities, underscores the magnitude of the problem.
Fraud in asylum processes has generated several high-profile cases in recent years. In March 2025, a legal assistant from Miami was charged with submitting a false asylum application to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), facing a possible sentence of up to ten years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
More recently, this July, a Cuban was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison in Miami for being part of a network dedicated to migrant trafficking through the use of forged documents and fraudulent asylum applications.
If the sanction against Singh is ultimately upheld, it will set a precedent as the largest civil penalty imposed on an immigration attorney within the U.S. government's crackdown on fraud in the asylum system.
Related videos:
Filed under: