Suit Charges Del Mar Firm With Defrauding Migrants : Amnesty: Court action alleges hundreds paid up to $5,000 for worthless documents that claimed to prevent deportation.

A Del Mar attorney and a notary public have defrauded hundreds of migrants by charging them up to $5,000 to process a post card-size immigration form and issuing them phony documents to stop deportation, an immigrant rights law group has alleged.

Attorneys from the California Rural Legal Assistance office in Oceanside raised the allegations against attorney Edward Fitzgerald, notary public Susan M. Jeannette and other employees of the American Law Assn. in a lawsuit filed last week in Superior Court. Fitzgerald and Jeannette run the business on Jimmy Durante Boulevard and claim to be immigration law and amnesty specialists.

According to the complaint, the pair and other office employees charged migrants $300 to $5,000 to fill in and mail an Immigration and Naturalization Service form for aliens petitioning under the replenishment agriculture workers (RAW) program, which ended Thursday.

The form is a simple one that INS officials say can be filled out by the applicant and which requires only a $10 application fee.

Under the RAW program, aliens will be eligible for amnesty if federal officials declare a shortage of agricultural workers and they are picked to work in the fields for at least three years. The complaint alleges that Alicia Ramirez, an employee of the firm, promised aliens who applied for the RAW program that they would be legalized and working by October, 1989.

But federal officials have not declared a labor shortage and the program has not been instituted.

Attached to the lawsuit is a letter written by Fitzgerald and addressed to “potential U.S. citizen.” The letter tells a client that a new INS ruling shortened the deadline for applying for the RAW program to Oct. 31, 1989, a month earlier than the real deadline.

“Because of the emergency created by this sudden change in the law, payment may be made as follows: Cashier’s check U.S. $1,500 immediately prior to filing,” said Fitzgerald’s letter, which was attached to the lawsuit.

Mexican Consul General Armando Beteta filed an affidavit with the lawsuit, saying that his office has received complaints from six Mexican nationals who have “experienced problems with the American Law Association.”

“I am concerned that many people believe they will legalize their status simply by filling out applications and furnishing documents to American Law Association,” Beteta said. “ . . . I know from discussions with these people that many of them believe they have some legal protection against INS deportation simply by carrying around the papers they have been issued by the American Law Association.”

Stephen Rosenbaum, a CRLA attorney in San Francisco, said American Law is also being investigated by INS officials and the Escondido Police department for defrauding migrants. Rosenbaum alleged that “hundreds” of migrants have been victimized.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of brothers Pedro and Martin de Jesus Martinez, of Oaxaca, Mexico. In affidavits filed with the complaint, the two men said they paid Ramirez $300 each. The men said that Ramirez gave them each a letter “that would allow us to get employment” and which would prevent the Border Patrol from deporting them.

Last May, one month after they visited the Del Mar firm, the brothers were questioned by Border Patrol agents in Carlsbad. According to their declarations, the men showed the agents the letter and official-looking identity cards given to them by the American Law Association.

“The agent laughed and said, ‘This letter is not good. . . . Let’s go.’ ” said Pedro de Jesus’ affidavit.

He and his brother were deported.

On Monday, a receptionist at the firm said that Jeanette, who allegedly signed the letter, was out of the office and would not be available for comment until next week. Fitzgerald did not return a reporter’s phone calls. The receptionist said that Ramirez did not work in the office.

The civil complaint asks for at least $500,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees and asks the court to issue a preliminary injunction against Fitzgerald and Jeannette to stop them from engaging in illegal activities. A hearing on the request for the injunction is scheduled for Jan. 30.

Besides allegations of fraud, Fitzgerald and Jeannette are charged with violating the California Business and Professions Code by “making false and misleading statements and . . . conducting unfair and unlawful business practices.”

The complaint alleges that Fitzgerald and Jeannette told aliens that the RAW program was their “last chance” to obtain citizenship, when immigration laws allow aliens many other ways to apply for citizenship. Fitzgerald’s letter to the unidentified client warned that, “under the law as it now stands, there will never be another opportunity for you to become a U.S. citizen.”

The lawsuit also charged that American Law lied to applicants by telling them that “those of you that file with us first will be given the best jobs upon acceptance.” Aliens were also told that they must agree to work for employers designated by American Law, the complaint alleged.

Many allegations of fraud in the amnesty program have surfaced this year in Southern California. In June, an Imperial Valley farm labor contractor was accused by INS officials of masterminding a ring that falsified more than 1,000 applications. The owners of two San Ysidro businesses, Notary Public S&S; and Olvera Bookkeeping Income Tax Notary, were arrested in February and charged with providing forged documents to aliens who did not qualify for the farm-worker amnesty program.