County Bar Offers Low Fee to Help Immigrants

Calling fees charged by some immigration lawyers and consultants outrageous, the Los Angeles County Bar Assn. on Monday said it would offer low-cost assistance to illegal immigrants entering the U.S. State Department lottery for coveted permanent resident visas.

The county Bar’s action is unusual because the organization rarely criticizes its members’ fees. A spokesman said the county Bar was responding to a Times report that some lawyers were charging up to $1,000 to enter clients in the government drawing. The county Bar’s Immigration Legal Assistance Project will charge $25.

“Clearly $1,000 to file is too much,” said Mary Mucha, director of the project. Mucha said she has received more than 100 inquires about the visa lottery in recent weeks.

The State Department insists that no lawyer is needed to enter the lottery, which will award visas to 40,000 people from 34 countries, including Ireland, Japan and most of Eastern Europe. Mexico is not included in the lottery, which is expected to take place in September. Applicants have a slim chance of winning. About 3.2 million entered a similar visa lottery last year.

The county Bar’s action was praised by people who work with immigrants, many of them desperate to live in the United States legally. Volker Thorey, a consultant at RAND Corp. and part-time community college teacher, said several of his students were nearly “wiped out financially” by high fees paid to immigration lawyers.

“There will be a big demand for what the county Bar is doing,” he said.

Bill Watanabe, director of the Little Tokyo Service Center, said ads placed by immigration lawyers in Japanese-language newspapers have gotten more aggressive as the lottery draws closer. He cited an ad that declared it offered “the last chance” for a green card lottery application. “There seems to be more pressure,” he said.

None of the lawyers known to charge high fees returned telephone calls seeking comment. In the past, the lawyers defended their fees--ranging from $250 to $1,000--as fair. Many lawyers charged additional fees--as much as $2,000--to process paperwork if their clients win the lottery.

The permanent resident visa is coveted because it makes it possible for immigrants to obtain a Social Security card and an alien registration card. The two cards are needed to work legally in the United States.

Although it is called a lottery, the State Department drawing is not truly random. The State Department says it is awarding visas on a first-come, first-served basis, so there is an advantage to getting an application in quickly.

Mucha said her office will hand-deliver applications to the State Department in Washington--a service promoted by many private lawyers who charge high fees.

The fees charged by some immigration lawyers have come under scrutiny from the State Bar of California, which has the authority to discipline lawyers for collecting “unconscionable fees.” Robert P. Helfin, chief trial counsel for the state Bar, said he could not comment on the investigation, except to say that it is continuing.