Overview
- Homeland Security Investigations issued a Notice of Intent to Fine New York attorney Suraj Raj Singh, alleging he prepared and filed 118 fraudulent documents across 54 asylum cases and seeking the maximum civil penalty of $470,584.
- DHS says the challenged asylum declarations were “identical or nearly identical in language and substance,” meaning they repeated the same factual narratives and supporting details across different clients’ filings.
- The action is a statutory proceeding under 8 U.S.C. § 1324c(d), which authorizes civil fines and gives recipients an opportunity to request an administrative hearing before any penalty becomes final.
- Combined with an earlier June set of notices against attorney Vinod Doddamani, ICE has proposed $725,816 in fines covering 182 allegedly fraudulent documents across 86 cases.
- Officials say the move reflects a broader DHS directive to expand anti‑fraud enforcement and could increase vetting of asylum filings, reshape how attorneys prepare declarations, and lead to more referrals from USCIS to enforcement units.