Recently, US federal officials have confirmed that a former police chief in Louisiana admitted to participating in a fraudulent scheme spanning several years, which involved assisting undocumented immigrants in deceiving to obtain U visas through false police reports.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) stated that 62-year-old Glynn Dixon, former police chief of Forest Hill, Louisiana, admitted to conspiracy on June 30, involving bribery, visa fraud, and mail fraud.
Previously, co-defendants Chandrakant Patel, former police chief of Oakdale, Chad Doyle, former police chief of Glenmora, Tebo Onishea, former police chief of Granmora, and Mike Slaney, former sheriff of District Five in Oakdale, all pleaded guilty.
Alexander Van Hook, the Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, mentioned that from December 2015 to July 2025, Patel allegedly recruited immigrants wishing to stay in the US, and paid several police chiefs to falsify incident reports.
The indictment accuses Doyle, Slaney, Dixon, and Onishea of knowingly making false statements, signing forms claiming certain individuals were crime victims when, in some cases, the criminal activities did not actually occur.
In one instance, Patel also attempted to bribe an official at the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office to obtain a false police report. Prosecutors mentioned that due to the defendants mailing fabricated immigration documents, they also face mail fraud charges.
According to the indictment, at least one false report was sold for as much as $5,000. These false reports allowed undocumented immigrants and their families to stay in the US under a “U nonimmigrant status” (U visa). According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the U visa is specifically reserved for victims of specific crimes (such as mental or physical abuse) who assist law enforcement agencies in investigating crimes.
Van Hook highlighted that applying for this visa requires police reports to confirm that the applicant is a crime victim or a witness.
Currently, Patel faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, while Dixon, Doyle, Onishea, and Slaney each face up to 5 years in prison.
In another development, on August 4, according to the immigration authorities, a man in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area was sentenced to nearly two years of federal imprisonment for assisting in planning a fake armed robbery to help undocumented immigrants deceive and obtain U visas, and was ordered to forfeit illegal proceeds.
This news piece is a compilation of information from ICE, the Department of Justice, and other related media reports.