On April 3, Kathia Blanco received an official-looking email concerning her pending immigration case.

The subject line: “Notice of action.”

The message indicated Blanco’s application for permanent residence had been received by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and was being processed.

The email included a large U.S. Department of Homeland Security seal and a signature from Jennifer B. Higgins, acting director of the citizenship agency. Blanco also received a form with fingerprint markings and a purported receipt from the federal government.

The Aurora resident had paid a Missouri-based immigration lawyer, Natasha Lopez Duran, $5,400 to help with her case. But Duran isn’t a licensed attorney in any state, and no one matching her name appears in a national database of immigratio

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