After a lengthy, extensive undercover investigation, the Consumer Protection Unit filed charges against La Guadalupana Immigration Services. This operation was located in Santa Ana and owned and operated by Roberto Fernandez with the assistance of Maricela Camarillo and his family members.

They preyed upon illegal immigrants promising them legalization through the political asylum application, which allows for issuance of temporary social security numbers, drivers licenses and work permits during the pendency of the federal administrative immigration process. The political asylum exceptions are uniformly unavailable to illegal Mexican immigrants, especially if the original application is made more than six months after entry into the USA. The victims were immigrants who had been here ten years or longer. They charged upwards of $4,500 per adult applicant.  The fraud led to a result where each applicant was paying substantial sums of money to enter into a process that led to deportation. 

The confiscated computerized accounting records of the defendants showed that the defendants collected more than $3.5 million in fees over a few years, with a roughly equal sum of accounts collectible on their books. There were more than 2,000 separate client files, each file with one or more related groups of applicants.

All of the defendants are believed to have fled to Mexico. This Office has been in the process of pursuing their extradition back to Orange County, seeking the participation of the Mexican government. One related defendant, Gerardo Calderon, who returned on his own to the United States, was captured and has been successfully prosecuted for conspiracy to defraud in this case. He was sentenced to jail for the fraud conspiracies in which he participated and has been ordered to pay full restitution to all victims of this illegal business operation.