"Susceptible to fraud" visa: police employee's scam? | Durham resolves against ICE warrants | Anti-Trump protests waning?
No. 140 — Aug. 31-Sep. 6, 2025
In this week's issue, we cover an employee of the Siler City police charged with fraud in relation to a visa for crime victims described in an OIG audit as "susceptible to fraud." In other immigration related news, both Carrboro and Durham have passed a resolution to protect illegals by not allowing ICE to enter city/town workplaces with only "administrative" warrants. *(Chatham, Durham, Orange)*
In another (alleged) case of law enforcement officer abusing their office, a Wake County detention officer has been charged with trafficking drugs into the jail in downtown Raleigh. *(Wake)*
Finally, in protest news, is the energy behind the regular "nationwide" anti-Trump protests of 2025 winding down? Also, anti-gun fanatics aside, what are the real facts about the frequency of school shootings? *(Orange, Durham, Wake)*
Siler City Police employee caught running visa scam
Warrant: Police department advocate duped men who went to her for immigration help - WRAL
Siler City Police Department worker accused of defrauding domestic violence victims - ABC11
The NC State Bureau of Investigation has charged a domestic violence advocate at the Siler City Police Department with two counts of obtaining false pretenses after being called in by the department to investigate allegations that she was defrauding the victims she was intended to be helping.
Gloria Maldonado, 57, is accused of taking $6,400 in cash to "assist" two individuals in applying for "U visas," which are intended to grant nonimmigrant legal status to victims of certain crimes who are "helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity," but never following through on the assistance.
Only two victims are named in the arrest warrant; however, the NCSBI reports that more victims came forward during the investigation, and that even more victims remain unidentified.
Although the U visa program was "intended to strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking of aliens and other crimes," it appears to have been frequently abused with a 2022 audit by the Office of the Inspector General titled "USCIS U Visa Program Is Not Managed Effectively and Is Susceptible to Fraud" finding that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
did not adequately manage the U visa program or ensure the program met its intended purpose,
approved petitioners with forged, unauthorized, altered or suspicious certifications,
did not track fraud referrals,
did not establish performance metrics or track critical program data,
did not manage its significant backlog, and
identified but did not address longstanding issues
The U visa has also been the center of fraud charges by the Department of Justice, such as for Rambhai Patel, who collected $850,000 by conspiring with a fellow Indian national to stage armed robberies at convenience/liquor stores and fast-food restaurants in order to give basis for the store clerks and/or owners to apply for fraudulent U visas.
In another case, an "armed robber" was fatally shot in Houston by an armed bystander who mistook the staged crime against two would-be U visa fraudsters for an actual robbery; at least four U-visas had been issued to previous "victims" in "robberies" staged by the same conspirators.
For a third example, in July the DOJ indicted five alleged conspirators including three current and former Louisiana police chiefs for engaging in a 9+ year scheme in which foreign nationals hired a middleman to bribe officials in least four different law enforcement departments to write false police reports naming them as victims of invented crimes.
In this case, it is not clear from the NCSBI release or the court documents whether the individuals who allegedly hired Maldonado to "assist" with the U visas were actually legitimate victims of qualifying crimes and she was charging money for doing what could have been legitimate job duties, or whether she was possibly running a scam similar to the cases described above, and her "victims" were merely upset that they did not actually receive a fraudulent visa.
Carrboro, Durham declared as "4th Amendment Workplaces"
Durham declares itself a ‘Fourth Amendment Workplace’ amid immigrant fears - The Chronicle
Durham passes 4th Amendment resolution to protect city workers from ICE - News & Observer
Durham council adopts 'Fourth Amendment workplace' resolution - ABC11
On Tuesday, the Durham City Council unanimously voted to adopt a bilingual "4th Amendment Workplace Resolution," declaring immigration enforcement to be "unconstitutional seizure" and claiming that "second-generation and non-immigrant[s]" were being "harassed," and ordering the city manager to "direct City staff to uphold the 4th amendment at their workplace."
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement can obtain "judicial" warrants signed by a judge which may legally allow them to enter or search premises without the owner's permission, but they are often only operating on the basis of "administrative" warrants, which are signed by ICE officials and can only be carried out in public locations or with the property owner's permission.
The language of the Durham resolution mirrors a "4th Amendment Workplace Proclamation" issued by Town of Carrboro adopted in May, which cites the Fourth Amendment Workplaces, a project of Siembra NC, which has been behind other anti-immigration enforcement efforts, from holding protests to tracking and reporting the location of ICE agents and operations.
The local governments and private businesses adopting these "4th amendment protections" may couch their language in the guise of protecting the rights of citizens, but it is clear from the actions of these same politicians and organizations that they oppose the deportation of any foreigner, even those who have felony conviction(s) in the state of North Carolina.
Although the North Carolina legislature has neutered the ability of liberal counties to act as "sanctuary jurisdictions" by requiring them to honor ICE detainers at their detention facilities, it does not appear that there is any law requiring local governments to honor ICE administrative warrants by allowing them access to city or county "workplaces."
Wake detention officer charged with trafficking drugs into jail
Wake County detention officer arrested, accused of supplying contraband to inmates - ABC11
Wake County detention officer charged with smuggling drugs to inmates - WRAL
A Wake County detention officer has been caught trafficking cocaine, cannabinoid, and suboxone to inmates at the John H. Baker Jr. Public Safety Center, according to the Wake County Sheriff's Office.
Hillary Morgan Seekins, 31, of Knightdale has been charged with three counts of possession with intent to sell/deliver, possession of controlled substances on jail premises, and conspiring with two unnamed inmates.
Sheriff Willie Rowe says that the department took "immediate action" as soon as allegations were reported, and that "the community can remain confident that this office continues to uphold the highest standards of professionalism and accountability."
Protest Watch
Anti-Trump protesters return to Triangle locations for Labor Day "Workers Over Billionaires" protest
Hundreds of Durham workers, community members demand ‘Workers Over Billionaires’ in Labor Day protest - CBS17
Hundreds rally in Raleigh for workers' rights, protesting billionaire influence on Labor Day - WRAL
Is the anti-Trump resistance losing steam? The latest 50501-associated "Workers Over Billionaires" nationwide protest on Labor Day appears to have attracted what may be their lowest attendance yet here locally for their nationwide protests, with a reported attendance of only "hundreds" in Raleigh according to WRAL.
The Triangle Labor Council AFL-CIO and the Union of Southern Service Workers participating in the organizing of the associated Durham event, which reportedly featured a crowd of hundreds focusing on "workers' rights and wealth inequality."
In Hillsborough, there were at least dozens of protesters lining both sides of the street outside the historic Orange County courthouse, with more traditional anti-Trump messaging.
As to the remaining four Triangle locations reported on the 50501 NC website, I was able to locate an image of at least two demonstrators in Chapel Hill, but no media of Morrisville, Pittsboro, or Sanford.
In contrast, it was much easier to find media of hundreds or thousands in attendance at these very same locations for the much larger "No Kings" protest in June, which I estimated at a total of 5,000-15,000 total attendance at 10-12 events across the Triangle.
Chapel Hill
Durham
Hillsborough
Raleigh
Student walk outs for gun control
Triangle students unite in national protest of gun violence in school walkout - CBS17
'It’s a reality no one wants to be a part of': Wake County, N.C. State students walk out to end gun violence - Spectrum News
NC students join nationwide demand for lawmakers to take action against gun violence - ABC11
Thousands of Wake County students join nationwide push for stricter gun safety laws - WRAL
Wake County students join national walkout to call attention to school shootings - WUNC
"This is not normal," read signs carried by students of Cary High School who joined an anti-gun walkout on Friday in the wake of the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting organized by the extremist gun control group Students Demand Action aka Everytown for Gun Safety.
Unbeknownst to these protestors, mass school shootings are already an extremely abnormal event. In a nation with over 130,000 schools, colleges, and universities, a maximum of one or two depraved individuals each year commits a shooting defined as an act of "mass murder" (four or more fatalities, excluding the shooter), for an average of 0.64 per year in the United States.
But perhaps the definition of "mass murder" is too narrow, as the shooting in Minneapolis last week would not qualify, as the killer only took the lives of two children while wounding 18 more and three adults. Even if we combine all mass shootings, gang-related crimes, interpersonal violence, etc. we only arrive at a total of 574 school shootings in America between 2000 and 2024 with a total of 462 victim fatalities and 844 wounded, according to a list compiled on the world's most popular encyclopedia, for an average of 0.8 fatalities per shooting.
If we take the numbers from 2024 (which was worse than average), we get a total of 28 victim fatalities in 56 shootings; if we divide that by the approximately 68 million students in America [1, 2], we would get 0.04 school shooting fatalities per 100,000 students. (And even that is an overestimation, as not all victims of school shootings are students.)
For comparison, the annual rate for drownings among children under the age of 18 in North Carolina, which we would consider a "not normal" event, is approximately 1.12 per 100k, or nearly 30x the rate of school shooting fatalities.
However, despite the fact that school shootings, mass shootings, and mass school shootings are each objectively "not normal", the public's perception of the danger of mass shootings appears to be about as inaccurate as the perception of the number of unarmed black men killed by the police each year, which the majority of "very liberal" respondents estimated at at least two orders of magnitude higher than the actual rate, according to a 2020 poll.
A 2019 poll found that 25% of Americans believed that mass shootings were the most common form of gun death in America compared to only 23% choosing the correct answer of suicide, despite there being approximately 60x-70x more suicides than mass shooting deaths in the prior years. Another survey in 2022 found that 32& of parents were "very" or "extremely" worried about a shooting at their children's school.
Although the murder of two children and the wounding of so many more is certainly more newsworthy than any one of the approximately fifty murders in the Triangle so far this year, is a shooting in Minnesota that much more relevant to these students than the 15-year-old, 16-year-old, or 17-year-old fatally shot in three separate incidents in Durham this year? Or is a shooting at a school merely more sensational, and useful for the cause of those who would already oppose the private ownership of firearms regardless of the actual facts about school shootings?
In fact, it seems more likely that non-school shootings would be easier to reduce through legislative action, as they are often committed by individuals with criminal histories, as opposed to individuals like the Annunciation Catholic Church shooter, who appears to have had no arrests prior to his act of mass murder.
In addition to Cary High School, students also walked out at Enloe, Heritage, Knightdale, Leesville Road, Millbrook, and Sanderson high schools in Wake County; as well as Orange High School in Orange County, and NC State, Wake Technical Community College RTP Campus, and Wake Early College of Information and Biotechnology, according to mainstream media reporting.
Participation in these walkouts appears to have varied from just a handful to dozens to over a hundred, with a total of perhaps 400-1200 demonstrators across the locations.