Some would-be American immigrants are paying to get robbed

So far, so normal. Liquor-store robberies are hardly rare in America. Yet according to an indictment unsealed in federal court in Chicago on May 17th, this one was staged: some of the victims (though not the man shot) had paid to get robbed. The robbery was one of 16 that prosecutors allege were organised by the defendants, mostly in the Chicago area, but also in Tennessee and Louisiana. According to the indictment, they were conducted “so that the purported victims of the robberies could apply for U-visas”. Six people, four of them Indian nationals, have been charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud.