Ronkonkoma woman sentenced for stealing more than $43,000 from immigrants, falsely claiming to be attorney

A Ronkonkoma woman was sentenced Wednesday to prison for falsely claiming to be an attorney and representing immigrants living illegally in the United States, according to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.

The sentence is 2 to 4 years, and the woman, Tania Gonzalez, age 48 — who also went by the name Tania Ayala — must pay restitution of more than $43,000, the office said in a press release.

Gonzalez’ attorney, Kristin Galison, of Garden City, declined to comment. 

Gonzalez had pleaded guilty Jan. 26 before Judge Terence Murphy to grand larceny and scheme to defraud. 

Joseph Damiani, a spokesman for District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly, said there were 25 people defrauded by Gonzalez.

"They found her services by word-of-mouth and referrals," Damiani wrote in an email.

According to the district attorney’s release, Gonzalez filed asylum paperwork for immigrants, without their knowledge, "providing them with advice and giving them the impression that she had the expertise to assist them with their immigration problems." She misrepresented herself between December 2015 and March 2020 and was arrested in June 2021. She’d seek "substantial down payments" from clients, prosecutors said.

"Gonzalez also told some victims that if they had been in the country for 10 years, they qualified for a 10-year visa, even if they had entered the country illegally. No such visa exists under Immigration Law," the release said.

A search of New York State’s attorney licensure database, which includes those who have been disbarred or otherwise prohibited from the practice of law, yields no results for "Tania Gonzalez" or "Tania Ayala."

According to the release, Gonzalez would exploit the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency's practice of automatically issuing working papers to those whose asylum claims have been pending for at least six months.

"When U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services provided employment authorization documents to Gonzalez’s clients, she used the issuance of these documents to demonstrate to her victims that she was working on their cases to obtain work permits and a green card," according to the release, which didn’t provide the disposition of the immigrants’ claims.

The release did not say why the agency became suspicious of Gonzalez, and Damiani declined to comment. Nor would he discuss the case dispositions.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.