Swindled Immigrants Get Relief From Court : Scam: Firm sold useless documents for up to $1,500 to people who could not enter this country legally. A judge orders the company’s operators to repay clients.

For Martin and Pedro de Jesus Martinez, illegal immigrants from Mexico’s Oaxaca state, it seemed an ideal fix: Pay $300 each and obtain a document that they were told was akin to a U.S. residence card. And it seemed perfectly legitimate.

“That was one of the best days of my life,” Pedro de Jesus recalled of the day in April, 1989, when he and his brother received the paperwork from a Del Mar-based firm known as the American Law Assn. “I wouldn’t have to be worried about being arrested any more.”

A month later, while the pair were waiting for a bus in Carlsbad, a Border Patrol agent approached. Rather than flee--their first reaction, honed by years of practice--the brothers proudly produced their documents.

The lawman laughed.

“I’m sorry, but these are no good,” the officer said, signaling that he had seen similar forms from the Del Mar firm before, the De Jesuses recalled. Saying “Back to Mexico, muchachos!” he handcuffed them and put them in his vehicle.

The two didn’t realize it then, but that arrest began the unraveling of what California Rural Legal Assistance, a nonprofit immigrants’ advocacy group, says was one of the largest, most profitable immigration scams ever unmasked in California.

“It’s certainly the largest such case that we’re aware of,” said Stephen Rosenbaum, San Franciso-based attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance, which provided legal aid to the De Jesus brothers.

The American Law Assn., owned by Susan M. Jeannette, a onetime paralegal and California notary public turned “legalization processor” in 1987, reached from the fields of northern San Diego County to the slums of Manila in the Philippines, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in income for Jeannette and her associates, court papers show.

More than 1,000 foreign nationals are believed to have paid fees of up to $1,500 to have Jeannette and her colleagues process their postcard-sized applications for an obscure government initiative meant for agricultural workers. (The actual government application fee: $10.)

Most of the victims were Mexican field hands residing in San Diego County, like the De Jesus brothers, but they also included some Central Americans and scores of Filipinos.

As it turned out, no one benefited.

The federal agricultural-worker program--known as the Replenishment Agricultural Worker, or RAW, initiative--was designed to be activated solely in the event of a nationwide shortage of field help. Such a labor scarcity never materialized.

Last month, a Superior Court judge in San Diego, after a two-week trial on a civil action brought by the De Jesus brothers, ruled that Jeannette and an assistant, Leticia Ramirez, “committed unlawful, unfair and fraudulent business practices” in the operation of the American Law Assn., also known as La Clinica de Ayuda-- The Help Clinic.

Judge Charles R. Hayes, who ordered the two to pay more than $400,000 in restitution to ex-clients, found that Jeannette’s firm engaged in false advertising, charged an “unconscionable fee,” and deliberately defrauded clients, all in violation of various consumer-protection statutes.

Both Jeannette and Ramirez have consistently denied the charges, saying they never made false promises and only charged reasonable fees.

But the judge found that the document the firm commonly issued to clients--official-looking correspondence that was often stamped and notarized, embossed with the bearer’s photograph and/or fingerprints--was deliberately misleading, intended to impart an aura of government imprimatur.

“Hundreds of people were deceived by this document,” the judge stated. “For the hard-working people who testified in court, the prospect of immigrating to the United States, with the desire to better themselves and their families, was wholly illusory insofar as this document is concerned. The document has no value for the RAW program or for anything else except to deceive clients.”

Concern about immigration swindles has risen considerably in recent years, as revisions in U.S. laws have opened complex new avenues for foreigners seeking legal status.

“One of the important things about this case is that it sends a message that undocumented people are not fair game,” said Claudia Smith, an attorney in Oceanside for California Rural Legal Assistance.

According to court papers, Jeannette, 47, got into the immigration business in 1987, after the Immigration Reform and Control Act opened the possibility of legal status in the United States for millions of illegal residents. The law also spawned the so-called RAW initiative for agricultural workers. Jeannette obtained a four-year notary public commission in January, 1987; the commission expired this year and has not been renewed.

Judge Hayes ordered Jeannette to pay $431,032 in restitution to more than 1,000 former clients. Ramirez was ordered to return $10,270 to 158 ex-customers. The two also were ordered to deposit about $40,000 into an account to be used for an advertising campaign designed to find all of those allegedly bilked by Jeannette, who testified that she had destroyed most of her paperwork.

A jury awarded $28,000 to each of the De Jesus brothers.

Jeannette and her colleague must deposit the entire amount into a special account by Aug. 13. But the two have said through their attorney, Joe Auerbach of Solana Beach, that they are broke and unable to pay. Jeannette and her assistant plan an appeal of the Superior Court ruling, Auerbach said.

The pair have since abandoned their former practice and begun business anew as North County Legalization Services, operating out of the same Del Mar address.

Immigrant advocates say the scope of Hayes’ order may be unprecedented in California. Among other things, Jeannette and Ramirez must now display signs, in Spanish and English, delineating precise fees and services, stating that they are not attorneys, and informing potential clients that there is a court order governing the business--and that the order is available for public perusal.

The pair declined to comment when contacted. There are no criminal charges against their business.