116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8225 

AN ACT 

To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit certain 

types of fraud in the provision of immigration services, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fight Notario Fraud 

3 Act of 2020’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FRAUD PROHIBITED. 

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 47 of title 18, United 

6 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol7 lowing new section: 

8 ‘‘§ 1041. Schemes to defraud persons in any matter 

9 arising under immigration laws 

10 ‘‘(a) FRAUD.—Any person who knowingly executes a 

11 scheme or artifice, in connection with any matter author12 ized by or arising under the immigration laws, or any mat13 ter that such person claims or represents is authorized by 

14 or arises under the immigration laws to— 

15 ‘‘(1) defraud any other person; or 

16 ‘‘(2) obtain or receive money or anything else of 

17 value from any other person by means of false or 

18 fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, 

19 shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 

20 1 year, or both. 

21 ‘‘(b) MISREPRESENTATION.—Any person who know22 ingly makes a false representation that such person is an 

23 attorney or an accredited representative (as such term is 

24 defined under section 1292.1(a)(4) of title 8, Code of Fed25 eral Regulations (or any successor regulation)) in any 
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1 matter arising under the immigration laws shall be fined 

2 under this title, imprisoned not more than 1 year, or both. 

3 ‘‘(c) THREATS AND RETALIATION.—Any person who 

4 violates subsection (a) and knowingly— 

5 ‘‘(1) threatens to report another person to Fed6 eral authorities or State law enforcement authorities 

7 working in conjunction with or pursuant to Federal 

8 authority; 

9 ‘‘(2) acts to adversely affect another person’s 

10 immigration status, perceived immigration status, or 

11 attempts to secure immigration status that— 

12 ‘‘(A) impacts or results in the removal of 

13 the person from the United States; 

14 ‘‘(B) leads to the loss of immigration sta15 tus; or 

16 ‘‘(C) causes the person seeking to apply for 

17 an immigration benefit to lose an opportunity 

18 to apply for such an immigration benefit that 

19 would have provided immigration status and for 

20 which a person was prima facie eligible; or 

21 ‘‘(3) demands or retains money or anything else 

22 of value for services fraudulently performed or not 

23 performed or withholds or threatens to withhold 

24 services promised to be performed, 
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1 shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 

2 1 year, or both. 

3 ‘‘(d) GRAVITY OF OFFENSE.— 

4 ‘‘(1) CUMULATIVE LOSS.—Any person who vio5 lates subsection (a), (b), or (c) such that the cumu6 lative loss to all victims exceeds $10,000 may be im7 prisoned not more than 3 years, fined under this 

8 title, or both. 

9 ‘‘(2) RETALIATION.—Any person who violates 

10 subsection (a) or (b) and causes the harm described 

11 in subsection (c)(2) may be imprisoned not more 

12 than 3 years, fined under this title, or both. 

13 ‘‘(e) INFORMATION SHARING AND ENFORCEMENT.— 

14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Immigrant and Em15 ployee Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division of 

16 the Department of Justice— 

17 ‘‘(A) shall have primary enforcement re18 sponsibility for this section and shall be con19 sulted prior to a United States Attorney initi20 ating an action under this section; 

21 ‘‘(B) shall establish procedures to receive 

22 and investigate complaints of fraudulent immi23 gration schemes from the public that are con24 sistent with the procedures for receiving and in-
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1 vestigating complaints of unfair immigration-re2 lated employment practices; and 

3 ‘‘(C) shall maintain and publish on the 

4 internet, information aimed at protecting con5 sumers from fraudulent immigration schemes, 

6 as well as a list of individuals who have been 

7 convicted of unlawful conduct under this section 

8 or have been found by a State or Federal agen9 cy to have unlawfully provided immigration 

10 services. 

11 ‘‘(2) SPECIAL UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS.— 

12 The Attorney General shall establish no fewer than 

13 15 Special United States Attorney positions in dis14 tricts the Attorney General determines, after ana15 lyzing data following each decennial census, to be 

16 most affected by the fraud described in subsections 

17 (a), (b), and (c). 

18 ‘‘(3) RESTITUTION.—There shall be deposited 

19 in the Crime Victims Fund established under section 

20 1402 of the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (34 

21 U.S.C. 20101) any restitution ordered for an offense 

22 under this section if the victim of such offense can23 not reasonably be located. 

24 ‘‘(f) SEVERABILITY.—If any provision of this section, 

25 or the application of such a provision to any person or 
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1 circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder 

2 of this section and the application of the remaining provi3 sions of this section to any person or circumstance shall 

4 not be affected thereby. 

5 ‘‘(g) IMMIGRATION LAWS.—In this section, the term 

6 ‘immigration laws’ has the meaning given that term in sec7 tion 101(a)(17) of the Immigration and Nationality Act 

8 (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(17)).’’. 

9 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 

10 for chapter 47 of title 18, United States Code, is amended 

11 by adding at the end the following: 

‘‘1041. Schemes to defraud persons in any matter arising under immigration 

laws.’’. 

12 SEC. 3. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS. 

13 The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of 

14 complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, 

15 shall be determined by reference to the latest statement 

16 titled ‘‘Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation’’ for this 

17 Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional Record 

18 by the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, pro-
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1 vided that such statement has been submitted prior to the 

2 vote on passage. 

Passed the House of Representatives October 1, 

2020. 

Attest: 

Clerk. 
116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8225 

AN ACT 

To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit 

gration services, and for other purposes. certain types of fraud in the provision of immi-