The Department of Homeland Security is pushing to send Anna Delvey, the convicted con artist whose real name is Anna Sorokin, back to her native Germany, telling the New York Post this week that her years of gaming the American legal and immigration systems are nearing an end.
Delvey, 35, has been living under ICE electronic monitoring since October 2022. She is currently appealing a removal order. But the federal government's patience appears spent.
A DHS spokesperson laid out the agency's position in blunt terms, as the New York Post reported:
"For years, she has made a mockery of the United States court system and its immigration laws. She has been released on an ankle monitor while her appeal of removal is heard. We look forward to sending her home soon."
That statement captures something broader than one deportation case. It reflects a federal enforcement posture that treats visa violations and criminal convictions as disqualifying, not as raw material for a reality-TV comeback.
Sorokin entered the United States on a tourist visa in 2017. She never left when it expired. Instead, she built a persona, "Anna Delvey," fake German heiress, and ran up a trail of unpaid bills across two continents.
The numbers tell the story. During a three-week stay at the Beekman Hotel in New York from June 7 to June 27, 2017, she skipped an $11,518 tab. She stiffed the W New York Hotel for $503.76 on a two-night stay. She left a supposed friend holding a $62,000 bill for an opulent villa in Marrakech, Morocco. She ran up $20,000 at Kasbah Tamadot, a five-star resort owned by Sir Richard Branson. And she chartered a Blade private jet to the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, in May 2017, then walked away from a $35,000 bill.
All of this while she was in the country illegally.
Manhattan Supreme Court convicted her in 2019 on charges of second-degree larceny, attempted grand larceny, and theft of services. A judge sentenced her to four to twelve years in prison. She was released in February 2021.
One month after her prison release, ICE took Sorokin into custody. Fox News reported that ICE arrested her on March 25, 2021, classifying her as a criminal illegal alien from Germany who had overstayed her tourist visa and been convicted of grand larceny and theft of services.
She remained in ICE custody for roughly a year and a half. Then, in October 2022, she was released under electronic monitoring, the ankle bracelet she now treats as a fashion accessory.
Last week, Delvey went viral again. Not for a legal filing or a public apology. She posted a video demonstrating how to put on tights underneath her ICE-mandated ankle monitor. The clip spread across social media, turning a federal enforcement tool into a style tip.
That is the state of immigration accountability in America: a convicted scammer, in the country illegally, using her government-issued tracking device for content.
The DHS statement on Delvey arrives as the federal government ramps up deportation infrastructure on multiple fronts. The Trump administration recently tapped ICE veteran David Venturella to lead the agency, signaling a focus on operational enforcement rather than bureaucratic caution.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers have moved to back that posture with money and law. Senate Republicans advanced a reconciliation bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol through 2029, aiming to ensure that enforcement operations do not stall over annual budget fights.
The legislative push extends beyond funding. The House passed the Deporting Fraudsters Act by a vote of 231 to 186, expanding the categories of deportable offenses, a measure that drew near-unanimous Democratic opposition.
Meanwhile, the State Department has been building the diplomatic scaffolding for removals. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced deportation agreements with 20 countries for third-country removals, broadening the government's options for sending people home even when direct repatriation proves difficult.
Delvey's case has always been tabloid gold. Netflix made a series about her. ABC cast her on "Dancing with the Stars." She built a brand out of being caught.
But the case also illustrates a specific failure in immigration enforcement. A foreign national entered on a tourist visa, overstayed, committed felonies, served time, was taken into ICE custody, and still remained in the country for years afterward, living under electronic monitoring while her appeal wound through the system.
DHS now calls her a "criminal illegal alien." That designation is not new. It has applied since her visa expired and her convictions were entered. The question is why it took this long for the federal government to move toward an outcome that the facts have supported for years.
Delvey's legal team, the Post noted, did not respond to a request for comment. The status of her removal appeal remains unclear. Whether she has filed any formal challenge to the latest deportation push is also unknown.
What is known: she is 35 years old, she is a convicted felon, she is in the country illegally, and she is still posting videos from New York City.
Consider the timeline in full. Delvey entered the U.S. in 2017. She was convicted in 2019. She was released from prison in February 2021. ICE picked her up in March 2021. She was released on a monitor in October 2022. And now, in 2025 or beyond, the government is publicly stating it "looks forward" to sending her home.
That is not swift justice. That is a system that allowed a convicted scammer, one who stiffed hotels, friends, a private jet company, and a billionaire's resort, to remain on American soil for the better part of a decade after her visa expired.
Federal courts have recently cleared the path for the administration to resume third-country deportations, removing one more legal obstacle. The tools are in place. The funding is moving through Congress. The diplomatic agreements exist.
The only thing left is execution, the part of immigration enforcement that has failed most consistently, and most visibly, in cases exactly like this one.
When a convicted felon who overstayed a tourist visa can turn her ankle monitor into a viral fashion moment, the system is not enforcing the law. It is hosting a performance. DHS says it wants to end the show. Americans have every reason to hold them to it.