South Florida woman pleads guilty to posing as DHS official to get immigration cases dropped

A South Florida woman has pleaded guilty to impersonating a federal immigration official and using that false identity to file fraudulent motions seeking the dismissal of removal cases in immigration court.Ana Caridad Linares, 45, of Coral Gables, admitted to representing herself in court documents as "Ana Linares, Legal Administrative Specialist, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement," according to court records. She accepted payment from clients for preparing and submitting the fraudulent filings.An immigration judge first flagged one of her motions as fraudulent in February 2024. The motion falsely appeared to have been submitted by a United States Department of Homeland Security employee and sought dismissal of a removal case involving a noncitizen.Linares caused at least three additional motions containing the same false title, language and representations to be submitted to the immigration court, court records show. In each instance, the filings were made to look like authenti