State Bar Panel Hears Ideas for Protecting Immigrants

For six years, attorney Kathryn Terry of Tustin investigated lawyers and others in Orange County who defraud illegal immigrants of thousands of dollars while promising help with immigration problems.

At a California State Bar hearing Thursday at the Anaheim Hilton and Towers, she told of con artists who charge illegal immigrants $5,000 to fill out forms they could do themselves.

“But I stopped two years ago because it was extremely dangerous,” she said. “This is a multimillion-dollar business, and when somebody tries to stop them they become very, very angry. I have had three contracts put on my life, and numerous acts of vandalism have been committed against my property. It simply wasn’t worth it.”

For three hours Thursday, local attorneys, law enforcement officials and community activists testified before a bar association panel that will recommend to the Legislature ways in which illegal immigrants can be protected from unscrupulous attorneys or people who pretend to be attorneys.

“There is no better con game victim” than an illegal immigrant, testified Lilia M. Powell, executive director of the Orange County Coalition for Immigrant Rights and Responsibilities. “What other victim can be taken advantage of and then disposed of through deportation?”

Most often, immigrants are victimized by people posing as attorneys, said Santa Ana Police Officer Jose Vargas. Often these are notary publics who advertise themselves as notario publicos. While notary publics are professional signature witnesses in this country, a notario publico in Mexico is an elite attorney with special powers, he said.