Immigration Consulting Fraud and the Unauthorized Practice of Law

Immigrants with the goal of naturalizing in the United States face a notoriously complex legal system.  Lawyers help navigate the path to residency and citizenship, but may be too expensive for some applicants.  The low-cost option is to turn to an immigration consultant.  But far too many immigrants have been burned by shady operators. 

Scam artists commit immigration consulting fraud when they hold themselves out as professionals able to help immigrants gain legal status, but then fail to perform the services promised or knowingly provide inappropriate services.  This can have grave consequences for the client, including deportation back to her home country. 

Immigration consultant fraud takes several shapes. 

The “notario = lawyer” hoax.  Immigration consultants often call themselves “notarios.”  The first thing know is that a “notario” is not an attorney.  In some Latin American countries, the title “notario publico” means someone able to practice law, but in California it’s actually illegal for an immigration consultant to call himself a “notario.” Avoid those who do. 

The “connections” lie.  Some immigration consultants tout fictitious special connections to federal immigration authorities and promise the client a special “in” when applying for citizenship.  Be on guard against this flimsy lie. 

The asylum gambit.  Scam artists will sometimes suggest pathways to citizenship that cost a lot and are guaranteed to fail.   Some convince clients to apply for asylum – at a standard charge of about $5,000 – knowing that because applicants must demonstrate that deportation back to their native countries would result in persecution, their applications won’t be successful. 
               
The cancellation-of-removal scam.  In a variation on the asylum hoax, an immigrant may know that if she is responsible for the care of elderly parents or small children, she can appeal to the government to allow her to stay in the country despite residing here illegally.   So she may turn to an immigration consultant to file a “cancellation-of-removal order.”  What the consultant doesn’t tell her, though, is that she must demonstrate that her parents or children would suffer “exceptional and unusual hardship” if she were deported.  This is a very difficult test to pass, making her application an ill-advised long-shot.

In these cases, clients have effectively exposed themselves to federal authorities and may face deportation as a result.  A client’s deportation allows the consultant to continue defrauding other client’s without consequence.

In order to find a reliable immigration consultant or legal help in applying for legal residency, contact the Immigrant Legal Resources Center at (415) 255-9499 or www.ilrc.org.

Another resource for locating reliable help with immigration matters is Catholic Charities of California at http://www.cccalifornia.org/index.shtml.

If you are a victim of immigration consultant fraud, you can contact the consulate of your country of birth.  Here are a listing of the Mexican consulate offices in major California cities:

Los Angeles
2401 W. Sixth St., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Tel: (213) 351-6800 * Fax: (213) 389-9249
http://www.sre.gob.mx/losangeles/

Sacramento
1010 8th St., Sacramento, CA 95814
Tel: (916) 441-3287 * Fax: (916) 441-3176
E-mail: consulsac1@quiknet.com
http://www.consulmexsacramento.com/

San Diego
1549 India St., San Diego, CA 92101
Tel: (619) 231-8414 * Fax: (619) 231-4802
E-mail: info@consulmexsd.org
http://portal.sre.gob.mx/sandiego/

San Francisco
532 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel: (415) 354-1700 * Fax: (415) 495-3971
http://www.consulmexsf.com/