(Some) Notarios Taking Advantage of Vulnerable Immigrants

A news story from Florida offers the latest on a lonstanding problem in the immigrant community.  Attorneys say hundreds of undocumented immigrants are victims of notarios (notaries) who engage in the unlicensed practice of law and filing immigration-related documentation on their behalf — work a notary is not authorized to do.   Notarios, or notaries, have broad legal powers in Latin America, and immigrants often assume their role is similar here. But in the U.S., notaries are limited to taking oaths, authenticating certain documents and acting largely as a typing service. Officials say that hasn’t stopped many notaries from advertising legal services in heavily immigrant neighborhoods.

To make matters worse, some notarios file frivolous papers and affirmatively damage the immigration case of the immigrants.  This has been a big problem in the Ninth Circuit.

KJ