‘We feel devastated, emotional and financially,’ victims of immigration lawyer speak out

When María Elena and her husband, Alfredo, learned that immigration attorney Alexandra Lozano had fled to Mexico, following multiple lawsuits that led her to surrender her law license and face suspension from practicing before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), they felt their world collapse and their hopes for legal immigration status vanish.

“We’re completely screwed!” Alfredo exclaimed in frustration upon finding the offices of attorney Lozano in the city of Commerce closed.

“By then, we had already made the enormous sacrifice of paying her around $18,000,” said the man, who suffers from bone cancer and recently retired after 44 years of working at a cardboard box factory in Los Angeles.

On May 26, 2026, Alexandra Lozano, who marketed herself as an attorney capable of “immigration miracles,” often appearing with an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the background, resigned from the Washington State Bar Association. USCIS subsequently announced that she is “permanently prohibited from practicing law in the state of Washington.”

Lozano closed her law firm, La Luz del Camino Legal, which had offices across the United States, on June 10, 2026. On June 18, 2026, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) suspended her authorization to practice before the Department of Homeland Security, which includes USCIS, the immigration courts, and the Board itself. 

When the bombshell dropped, immigration attorneys in Los Angeles began receiving calls from clients of Lozano, clients for whom she and her team had filed applications under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), even though these individuals did not qualify for the benefit, which offers a direct path to permanent residency in the United States.

“Lozano created a scheme to regularize thousands of immigrants through VAWA, based in many cases on exaggerating their stories. She even trained other attorneys across the country in her method, which involved preparing statements and obtaining psychological evaluations,” says immigration attorney Mercedes Castillo, who had met Alexandra Lozano through an online group for mothers who were also immigration lawyers. She never imagined she would end up linked to a scandal involving the exploitation of more than 50,000 immigrants.

Castillo explains that Lozano’s own husband, a therapist, conducted the psychological evaluations. For a fee of $1,200, he would provide a report stating that the immigrant had been a victim of “extreme abuse”, a mandatory requirement to qualify for VAWA.

Through conversations with some of Lozano’s former clients in Los Angeles, Castillo learned that many did not understand what they were signing.

“When I asked her former clients if they had actually told Lozano’s team certain things, they replied that they never said such things, or at least not with the level of severity described in the documents.”

As a result, many people are now terrified to attend their fingerprinting appointments or interviews, fearing they might be arrested.

“Lozano’s clients were left without legal representation after having paid her an average of $15,000, and now they’re going to have to pay another lawyer to help them.”

‘We never met her’

After seeing an interview with Lozano on television, María Elena, an immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico went to her offices in Commerce, hoping to adjust her immigration status based on a petition from one of her two U.S.-born children or her husband, Alfredo, who is a legal permanent resident.

“We never spoke to or saw Lozano, but her assistants were very kind,” María Elena and Alfredo agree.

In 2023, Lozano’s team filed a VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) form on María Elena’s behalf, without her or her husband’s knowledge.

It was only when their son checked the case status online that they discovered Lozano’s team had filed a VAWA petition for María, naming Alfredo as her abuser.

“My son told me, ‘They’re claiming here that you brought her to the United States by force, that you throw plates of food at her, and that you mock her for being fat.’ My head was spinning when I heard that,” says Alfredo.

“We wanted legal permanent residency for my wife, but we wanted everything to be done legally, not based on lies.”

When Alfredo confronted Lozano’s staff, their demeanor shifted; according to Alfredo and María Elena, they stopped being polite and began hurling verbal insults. They even barred him from accompanying his wife, even though she had signed a consent form granting him access to her case file.

“They claimed that my wife had agreed to say I abused her in order to apply for VAWA. My wife doesn’t even know what she signed; she cannot read or write in either English or Spanish.”

After discovering they applied for residency based on a lie, Alfredo says they had no choice but to place themselves in God’s hands.

"She defrauded us and deceived us completely. We have no idea how this will all end. My fear is that ICE might come to our home, find my wife and deport her,” says Alfredo.

The options

Attorney Castillo explains that the victims of lawyer Lozano have several options. One is to withdraw their application, but that would immediately expose them to immigration court proceedings, something she does not recommend given the current state of the court system.

Alternatively, she notes that many of Lozano’s clients are still a year or two away from receiving a decision on their VAWA cases; she and other attorneys suggest waiting to see how USCIS responds.

“Another option is to wait for the outcomes of the civil lawsuits filed against Lozano; a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs could potentially influence the victims’ own cases.”

The class action lawsuit

Mathew Metz, lead attorney of a class action lawsuit against Alexandra Lozano, said that more than 5,000 former clients have contacted his team, and they are working with immigration attorneys across the country so that affected families can have their claims heard. 

“Ms. Lozano has resigned from the practice of law in lieu of discipline, and the Washington State Bar Association has appointed custodians over her client files”. 

He added that these families trusted her with their futures in this country, and they are entitled to answers and to accountability. 

"Anyone who believes they were harmed can register their interest in participating in the litigation at lozanocivilaction.com”