Coral Gables woman poses as ICE officer to stop deportations, faces prison

Ana Caridad Linares is not an attorney, nor does she work for one. The Coral Gables woman has never been an employee of the U.S. government or worked as an immigration officer for the Department of Homeland Security.

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Yet on four occasions in 2024, Linares pretended to be a Legal Administrative Specialist for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and attempted to dismiss deportation proceedings for non-U.S. citizens while charging them hundreds of dollars in fees, according to a factual statement filed with her plea agreement in Miami federal court.

An immigration judge caught her in the act early on, but she still continued to impersonate an ICE officer in court, the filing shows.

Linares, 45, pleaded guilty this summer to falsely impersonating a federal immigration officer and faces up to three years in prison at her sentencing on Aug. 20 before U.S. District Judge Michael Moore. Linares, represented by attorney Michael Mirer, is likely to receive less time because she accepted responsibility for her crime.

Everyday people impersonating federal agents is fairly common in South Florida, but it’s rare when someone pretends to be an ICE legal officer trying to fix problems in immigration court. Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Linares posed as a Legal Administrative Specialist, an ICE employee who provides clerical assistance to government attorneys and does not have the authority to stop removal proceedings or take another other legal action.

In a statement released on Monday, U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quinones called her conduct “a fraud on the immigration court and an affront to the rule of law.”

According to her factual statement, Linares admitted that she submitted a document on Jan. 26, 2024, to the Executive Office of Immigration Review and claimed to be an ICE officer seeking to dismiss immigration proceedings for a person with the initials “R.N.C.”

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An immigration judge denied her motion to dismiss R.N.C.’s case on Feb. 7, 2024.

“At the hearing, the immigration judge indicated to R.N.C. that he was being represented by an imposter, impersonating a government employee,” Linares’ statement filed in court says.

R.N.C., who had no immigration status, indicated at the hearing that he had paid Linares $150 for an asylum application. After the hearing, he contacted Linares and told her what happened to him in immigration court, and she advised him to hire an attorney.

Despite being exposed as a fake ICE officer, Linares submitted identical motions to dismiss removal proceedings for three other non-U.S. citizens in April and May 2024, “using the same title and same verbiage,” according to her statement.

“Linares once again on these occasions titled the motions to appear as though these were the department’s own motions,” the statement says. “Linares was also paid by her clients to file these motions.”

Immigration authorities noted that only ICE attorneys have the “prosecutorial discretion” to dismiss cases “determined not to be an enforcement priority.”

“In so filing, Linares set out to cause, or caused, immigration cases to be unlawfully dismissed,” the statement filed with her plea agreement says.

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