Chicago – July 30, 2026
New York immigration lawyer Suraj Raj Singh is facing more than $470,000 in fines after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement accused him of filing 118 fraudulent asylum-related documents across dozens of cases.
The agency says the filings contained repeated or nearly identical narratives about persecution, while CBS News said the move is part of a broader Trump administration crackdown on suspected asylum fraud by attorneys.
ICE said the penalty notice covers 54 immigration cases and marks a sharp escalation in how the government is pursuing alleged document fraud by lawyers. The fine is part of an expanded use of financial penalties, and CBS News reported that DHS has directed ICE lawyers to pursue administrative fraud cases against immigration attorneys accused of helping file false asylum claims.
The case comes after earlier action against another attorney, Vinod Doddamani, whom ICE said it sought to fine for allegedly filing similar false asylum materials in 32 cases. ICE has argued that fraudulent filings undermine the asylum system, while advocates caution that a denied asylum claim is not automatically fraud.
