Tenzin Norbu, a 56-year-old Tibetan man, was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $170,000 after pleading guilty to a decade-long asylum fraud scheme in which he filed dozens of false asylum applications with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) from 2007 to 2018. Norbu fabricated stories claiming applicants were Tibetans persecuted by China, coached them on how to lie during interviews, and provided fake identification documents in exchange for about $5,000 per client. After fleeing to Canada to evade prosecution, he was extradited to the U.S. and indicted in 2024, later sentenced in 2025 by Judge Kimba M. Wood. His crimes left nearly 100 immigrants in legal uncertainty, some of whom had legitimate asylum claims. The case underscores USCIS’s commitment to protecting the integrity of the U.S. immigration system.