MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A 36-year-old woman has been sentenced to six months in federal prison for conspiring to commit visa fraud by helping four noncitizens to falsely claim they had been assaulted and robbed.
The U.S. Attorney’s office said that Yuridia Hernandez Linares, who pleaded guilty last year, crafted a plan in which four individuals falsely reported to the Eden Prairie Police Department that they were victims of robberies in Eden Prairie.
The Star Tribune reports that in each case, the four individuals alleged they were assaulted and slashed by two Somali men using a box cutter. By claiming to be victims of a crime, the four individuals could then apply for what is known as a “U Visa” that would allow them to adjust their status to become lawful permanent residents of the United States.
Linares charged each of the four $2,000.
She was also sentenced in January in Hennepin District Court to three years’ probation and 180 days on home electronic monitoring for swindling the four individuals. After she serves her prison sentence she will be deported.
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