Legal consultants prey on California immigrants across state
John Roemer in the California the Bar Journal reports on a longstanding problem in immigrant communities.
Unscrupulous “consultants,” “advisers” and “notarios” often prey on immigrants who don’t understand English well. Through that assistance, immigrants can lose their money – and jeopardize their prospects of gaining documented status.
Exhibit A: Lacayo & Associates in San Francisco’s Mission District. Leonard J. Lacayo is not a lawyer, but you’d never know it from his website. It claims that as a “highly respected … immigration consultant,” Lacayo offers “legal services” and has “successfully legalized over 40,000 immigrants, and which presently represents over 9,000 families in ongoing legalization procedures.” Lacayo, his home page claims, “operates in principles of professionalism.”
ImmigrationProf blogger Bill Ong Hing, founder of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said scams on the vulnerable are not only endemic, but decades old.
The article discusses efforts to protect immigrants from abuse by notaries.
KJ