To onlookers, they look just like regular robberies — thugs pulling knives or guns on victims in gas stations, restaurants or parking lots, punching them and making off with a purse or a wallet. In reality, the stick up is fake, and the attacker is being paid by their 'victim,' most often an illegal immigrant who is staging the underhand ruse to secure a permanent home in the US.

According to the Daily Mail, the Violence Against Women Act creates a loophole that gives scammers an easy route to a Green Card. By falsely claiming they were victims of abuse, the foreign spouse can finish their Green Card process alone. Hundreds or thousands cheat the system this way every year, experts say.

As reported by the Daily Mail, in 2015 273 illegal immigrants slated for deportation suddenly claimed they had been raped, ostensibly to halt their deportation proceedings and obtain U visas. 36 of the claims were demonstrably untrue, and 54 lacked enough evidence to even substantiate that the event occurred.

As reported by the Daily Mail, between 2009 and 2011, over 18,000 illegal aliens and 14,000 of their family members obtained US visas through the U visa program.