Nude photos for cash? Immigrants go to new lengths to raise funds to cover legal fees

USA Today

16 hours ago

Immigrants and their families are going online to raise funds to defend against their deportation, from GoFundMe to OnlyFans.
In a photo on OnlyFans.com, a former model from Colombia smiles under a white visor as she sunbathes in South Florida.
But the snapshot, taken poolside months ago, is far from her current reality: She's locked up in an ICE detention center in Louisiana.
The cost of deportation defense can run into the thousands of dollars, and a growing number of immigrant families are resorting to online fundraising to make ends meet.
A USA TODAY analysis of fundraising efforts of one of the nation's largest crowdsourcing sites, GoFundMe.com, found dozens of campaigns that have raised more than $1.8 million since President Donald Trump took office, the majority in the past two months.
Public generosity to the fundraisers appears to be growing as the president's mass deportation campaign has intensified.
Organizers raised $1.7 million in June and July on GoFundMe, compared with about $141,000 in April and May – in step with ICE's expanding immigration enforcement. Before June, many of the fundraisers with the keyword "ICE" were campaigns related to ice hockey, ice cream and the ice bucket challenge, which raises money for ALS patients.
GoFundMe declined to discuss the increase with USA TODAY or provide in-house data on immigration-related fundraisers. A spokeswoman said GoFundMe had internally verified 15 campaigns related to immigration detention, meaning both the organizers and beneficiaries have been vetted.
OnlyFans.com didn't respond to a request for comment regarding immigration detention-related accounts. The Colombian woman's page explicitly centers on her ICE detention, playing on the "before" and "after" of her circumstances.
USA TODAY spoke with her by video call to the ICE facility where she is detained and, separately, with her husband by cellphone. They requested anonymity out of fear their fundraising effort could impact her upcoming immigration bond hearing.
In mid-July, her American-born husband was preparing to drive 14 hours overnight to surprise her at the Louisiana detention facility, where detained women are allowed one, two-hour visit per week.
In a video call with USA TODAY, she cradled the phone receiver in front of rows of gray bunks and women moving around in sweats. The cherry-red polish she had on her nails when she was arrested had nearly grown out.
Pleas for money answered online
To the Department of Homeland Security, detained immigrants are "criminal illegal aliens" to be removed. DHS touts immigrant arrests on its social media pages, with mugshots and candid photos of serious criminal offenders.
In reality, the majority of those arrested are not hardened criminals, according to data analysis by immigration researcher Austin Kocher.
Federal agents are staking out courthouses to arrest people pursuing legal immigration pathways; raiding farms, racetracks, construction sites and restaurants; and detaining people pulled over by local law enforcement for traffic violations.
ICE has prioritized for detention anyone in the United States without lawful status, to include people who have applied to remain legally or who entered under programs that were legal during the Biden administration.
'We look forward to USA Today reporting on fundraising for American victims and our brave law enforcement who are facing a 830% increase in assaults against them,' said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in an emailed statement.
More: ICE agents hurt as assaults surge 700% amid aggressive enforcement
One of the vetted GoFundMe organizers, 22-year-old Joanna Martinez, posted her family's story to GoFundMe.com in May after ICE detained her father.
José Martinez crossed the border from Mexico nearly 30 years ago, without permission; he has no criminal record. He was on his way to put up drywall in Charlotte, North Carolina, she said, when ICE pulled him over.
He spent a month in ICE detention; the $3,665 raised on the site helped post his $4,000 bail. But the family still faces thousands of dollars in legal expenses for his application for legal residency.
"I still wake up in the middle of the night crying, worried," she said. "Will this happen again?"
The Colombian woman is among those who do face criminal charges.
Though she came legally to the United States on a tourist visa and is pursuing legal residency through her spouse, according to their account, she was charged with for driving under the influence in June and turned over to ICE.
Still, the pleas for monetary assistance by her and others, chronicle the financial emergencies of family members of missing caregivers and absent providers.
Some of the 94 GoFundMe campaigns launched since April have garnered donations in the double-digits; others are well into six-figure territory.
A California mother of two whose youngest is still in high school has raised $6,721 in a week.
A married Vermont homebuilder who co-owns a business has collected $36,975 since June 18.
An Oregon vineyard manager whose expertise in grape-growing is renowned: $150,804 since June 14.
In his blurb, Bryant Magaña described the "most painful and confusing time" of his life, after his Mexican wife Yocari was detained during her interview for a green card.
"What seemed like a very important and exciting day for both of us, because we were so close to obtaining my wife's legal status, turned into one of our worst nightmares when she was detained by ICE," he said in a campaign that had raised $3,643 as of July 14.
Luma Mufleh, chief executive of Kentucky-based Fugees Family, said she hesitated before hitting "send" on a campaign to raise funds for a Bowling Green student who, despite having lawful status, was detained by ICE shortly after his high school graduation. The nonprofit assists student refugees.
"I wasn't sure people would support it," she said. "We're raising money in a community that went 60% for Trump. I didn't want the backlash."
But the opposite happened: "Within 48 hours we raised $20,000, the bulk of that was from small donors," she said, and the student was released from ICE detention after more than two weeks.
Falling in love, hoping to stay
The Colombian woman met her husband when he was in a relationship and visiting her country. His parents were raised there and his grandmother is still a resident.
The two kept in touch and years later, by then both divorced, they reconnected when she traveled on a tourist visa to South Florida.
"One thing led to another and now we're married," he told USA TODAY.
This is what freedom looked like before I was detained and locked up. Flowing river, silent nature, peace....freedom🌿🌳☀️💧 pic.twitter.com/OtBaCrlslX
"She is beautiful. She likes to look at everything on the bright side. She has a strong belief in God and spirituality. She brought me a lot of peace with that sort of mentality and that sort of attitude," he said.
Marrying her "was an easy choice," he said. Deciding to upload scantily clad and nude photos and videos they took as part of their own intimacy was harder.
Her OnlyFans handle, @BlondeOnBond, features photos of a voluptuous woman in a skimpy bikini and the tagline: "The Blonde that Shouldn't Get Deported."
It has generated a handful of subscriptions, he said. But it hasn't yet drawn in what many of the GoFundMe campaigns have.
"I've been hesitant about it because I don't know where it's going to lead, but I'm trying to do anything to come up with the money," he said.
Driving Uber full-time was enough for daily expenses, but not for the rapidly escalating cost of legal immigration defense. He estimates he has already spent $15,000, including the cost of her legal residency petition and attorneys to defend her from deportation.
"Sometimes I am filled with faith and I think everything is going to turn out okay," the woman told USA TODAY in the video call. But then other times I lose heart."
In a photo posted to her accounts, she sits at the edge of a rushing river in a green two-piece bathing suit. The picture is meant to be sexy, but her words are wistful: "This is what freedom looked like before I was detained and locked up."
Lauren Villagran can be reached at [e-mail].