The cost of a guest worker visa? For some scam victims, years of debt.
Last January, more than a hundred people waited for their visas outside the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City, only to find out that they had been scammed.
They had spent nearly a year meeting with job recruiters, shelled out thousands of dollars in fees, and traveled through the night from farming towns. The recruiters had stolen all the money and abandoned them at a gas station in the capital, forcing them to scout out the embassy on their own hours later. It was like watching their life savings go up in smoke.
Since last October, nearly 260,000 Guatemalans have been apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border. Many seek asylum. Others come looking for jobs, since they could not gain permission to work in the U.S. through common legal routes – such as a business sponsor, a close relative’s petition, or a rare win in the diversity visa lottery.
One of the only other legal options is just what the
Fraud feesRoadblocks to justice