Federal prosecutors have charged three current and former Louisiana police chiefs in an elaborate visa fraud scheme involving fabricated crime reports that allowed hundreds of illegal immigrants to falsely claim victim status and gain legal residency in the United States.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the police officials sold fraudulent armed robbery reports to migrants for $5,000 each, enabling them to apply for U visas — a type of immigration relief for victims of certain crimes who assist law enforcement. The scam reportedly ran for over a decade and resulted in hundreds of bogus applications being approved.
The accused police chiefs are:
- Chad Doyle, Chief of Police in Oakdale
- Glynn Dixon, Chief of Police in Forest Hill
- Tebo Onishea, former Chief of Police in Glenmora
Also indicted were Chandrakant Patel, a convenience store owner in Oakdale who allegedly organized the scheme and recruited migrants, and Michael Slaney, a Marshal’s Office employee in Oakdale.
“These weren’t just exaggerations — the armed robberies never happened, and the so-called victims never experienced crimes,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander Van Hook. “Yet, these fake reports were used to manipulate a system designed to protect real victims.”
The fabricated documents were submitted to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which runs the U visa program. Van Hook noted that the $5,000 fee per report quickly added up to a lucrative criminal enterprise.
Court records show that none of the defendants had attorneys listed as of Wednesday. Investigators said the scheme came to light when a suspicious number of out-of-state immigrants began appearing as supposed crime victims in central Louisiana police logs — a red flag that eventually unraveled the operation.
Fraud within the U visa system has been a growing concern. A 2022 report from Homeland Security’s inspector general found that applications were being approved despite forged signatures and altered police reports. In similar past cases, scammers have gone as far as staging fake robberies at convenience stores to secure documentation.
But in this Louisiana case, officials say the alleged perpetrators skipped the theatrics entirely — and simply made everything up, cashing in at the expense of a system meant to support genuine victims of crime.
The case is ongoing, with federal authorities continuing to identify those who benefitted from the fake reports.
