Hundreds of immigrants in the state of California were promised US citizenship by Elk Grove resident, Helaman Hansen if they paid him to assist them with getting adopted. Hansen was put on trial for fraud and encouraging illegal immigration for the sake of financial gain.
Hansen’s citizenship via adoption scheme was first learned of by his many victims in their local churches. The 64-year-old businessman, or his employees, would turn up at the churches, promising undocumented immigrants that, for a fee, he could get them adopted into families, provide them with job training, Social Security numbers and new birth certificates. As many as 471 adult immigrants from Fiji, Ecuador, Laos, Mexico, India, and a range of other countries fell for the scam. They paid amounts from $150 up to as much as $10,000 to become a part of the ‘Migration Program’.
Several victims succeeded in completing the adoption aspect of the program, but evidence at Hansen’s trial demonstrated that none of them was able to gain US citizenship as a result. Hansen was convicted of the charges against him on Tuesday.
Immigration experts in the US say that Hansen’s scam is one aspect of an expanding industry, which is taking advantage of undocumented immigrants who are desperate to gain legal residency, by offering them false hope. Hansen’s scheme has been described as the biggest of its kind by federal authorities.