Elena Maria Lopez is a former political journalist and financial writer. She has a background in politics, public policy and finance.
She’s used her expertise in research and investigation to document rampant fraud and national-security weaknesses within the American immigration system.
Elena Maria Lopez developed the nasty habit of chain-smoking cigars during her violent immigration fraud case and divorce. She justified it as her “Buddhist breathing technique.” In reality, she was trying to cope with undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder - PTSD.
Developing PTSD was not only a reaction to her Dutch husband’s repeated violent attacks, but the refusal of congressional members, bureaucrats and various levels of law enforcement to protect her from a violent man that mental-health professionals describe as a sociopath -- and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deems as "dangerous."
Researching key issues in preparation for her divorce, Lopez quickly discovered that immigration fraud, and especially marriage fraud, is rampant. Even worse, immigration officials don't warn Americans of such widespread fraud. She quickly morphed from fraud victim into whistleblower in the hopes of helping others. She set up the very first website dealing with the widespread problem: ImmigrationFraud.com.
For years, she’s had high-ranking members of Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, the F.B.I., think tanks, attorneys, investigators, journalists and fellow victims contacting her for background, data, research and resources regarding immigration fraud.
In 2018, Lopez twice presented clusters of national security immigration fraud cases at White House meetings. These involved foreign spouses using loopholes to bypass background checks, hide criminal activities and fraud, and then quickly marry active military with high-level security clearances. Many of these security risks lived on U.S. military bases and fraudulently sought federal benefits.
The FBI contacted her about these cases in 2016.
Lopez first started warning government officials about these dangerous loopholes in 2006. She first discovered the national-security clusters in 2012 and quickly raised the flag with congressional leadership and administration officials.
Rather than close the temporary loopholes responsible, Congress and the president made them permanent law in 2013.
Lopez regularly calls out both Republicans and Democrats by demanding protections for natural-born and naturalized American citizens. Lopez fails to understand why politicians put the needs of foreign nationals before those of their own U.S. citizen constituents.
Such political demands are not "anti-immigrant" or racist: Fraudsters don’t screen for political party or race. Immigration fraud victims come from every socio-economic, racial, ethnic, educational and geographic background. Many of the fraud victims she's worked with over the years are people of color, Latinos, multi-racial, LGBTQ+, first-generation Americans and naturalized U.S. citizens.
Lopez is biracial, Latina, and hails from a racially and ethnically diverse state. She describes herself politically as “an inquisitive moderate.”
A former political journalist and financial writer, Lopez now lobbies congress to change immigration laws victimizing Americans and the nation's security.
Luckily, Lopez has since quit chain-smoking cigars ... but is leaving it open as a viable option thanks to increased stress and continued government incompetence.
Although she’s a domestic-violence victim living in hiding with help from state officials, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) voluntarily and illegally dumped her sensitive personal information onto the Internet and gave it to various media organizations in 2017.
This was a year after the DHS warned her that her ex-husband still poses a serious threat to her safety, yet refused to deport him.