At the time, Martin Torres Reyes thought he had found a path to a green card.
It was early 2015, and Mr. Torres, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, heard about a lawyer who was promising legal permanent residency to people who had lived in the United States for 10 years and had American-born children.
Mr. Torres went to see the lawyer, Thomas T. Hecht, at his Times Square office, and for an initial fee of $750, the lawyer said that he would get a work permit in six months, and then some time later, the green card.
According to a lawsuit filed late Wednesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, this was fraud. Mr. Hecht and his son, Leonard H. Hecht, the complaint said, tricked Mr. Reyes and at least 25 other undocumented immigrants from New York.
The plaintiffs all thought they were applying for a green card, but instead, they claimed in the suit that the lawyers filed different paperwork, for asylum, without their knowledge.