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Juan Cedillo was brought back to Westchester County Jail in Valhalla on Wednesday night, July 24 after his arrest in Washington state earlier on Monday, July 8, the Westchester County Police Department announced on Thursday, July 25.
According to the department, Cedillo was originally arrested in 2019 following an investigation by Yonkers Police that determined he had allegedly stolen tens of thousands of dollars from members of the city's Hispanic community. To do this, Cedillo claimed he could help them obtain so-called U visas and other documents that could help them on their way to legal immigration status and citizenship, police said.
It is alleged that Cedillo would recruit families by word-of-mouth and direct them to join his fabricated “U.S. Counter Insurgents Association of Justice” for a $5,000 fee. During his meetings with families, he would tell them he was “better than” or “higher” than an immigration lawyer, claiming he had contacts at multiple government agencies, including at times the CIA, the FBI, and The White House. He promised he would obtain U-Visas for them and guarantee them “Green Cards," according to the Westchester County District Attorney's Office.
During the process of creating falsified U-Visa applications, he would take further payments totaling approximately $3,000, obtaining a total of $8,000 from each victim, officials said.
In reality, though, Cedillo would simply submit a U-Visa application, which is already available online, with false and incomplete information and submit it to the federal government for standard processing. Cedillo allegedly falsely indicated that the applicants were victims of crime (a requirement for a successful U-Visa application), and he failed to include supporting documents.
In November 2019, a grand jury returned an 87-count indictment against Cedillo, who was then arraigned and sent to Westchester County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.
After his release in 2020, he made a few virtual court appearances from Washington, but did not appear in person when he was directed to do so by the court, police said. This led to the department issuing an arrest warrant for him, which was lodged with law enforcement in Washington and Kansas, where Cedillo had also allegedly run his immigration fraud scheme.
Cedillo was eventually arrested on July 8 in Olympia, Washington by the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. Marshals Regional Task Force. After he waived extradition, the Westchester County Police Warrant-Fugitive Unit flew to the West Coast to take custody of him and bring him back to New York.
After his return, Cedillo was brought to Westchester County Jail. He will appear in court on Thursday.
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