State Creates Office to Aid Immigrants

In an effort to combat fraud and other scams that victimize immigrants and non-English speakers in California, Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer on Friday announced the creation of the Office of Immigrant Assistance.

Lockyer said the move was the right thing to do, especially since one recent report estimated that 26% of the state’s population is foreign-born.

“I want to ensure that Californians who happen to be new immigrants have the benefit of protection under our laws and there is truly justice for all in California,” he said.

The new office within the state Justice Department, initially to be staffed by about a dozen attorneys and others, is intended to provide education and outreach services to those in immigrant communities who hesitate to seek assistance from authorities because of their U.S. residency status.

Since the 1960s, countless stories have surfaced about scam artists and others who have victimized immigrants: unscrupulous notarios, notaries public in the U.S., charging thousands of dollars for routine tax and immigration work; newcomers working for $2 an hour, far below the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour; people being tricked out of their savings and homes in bankruptcy scams.

And there are the cases of Asian women held in virtual slavery to work off the cost of illegally bringing them to this country.

In the past, such cases were left to local prosecutors to pursue. But with the new office, Lockyer said, he hopes to spur more people to come forward. In some cases, Lockyer acknowledged, such disclosures to the new office may lead to prosecutions by his staff.

He added, however, that it was difficult to say how much of a workload the new operation might encounter.

Assemblyman Herb Wesson (D-Culver City), who was at Lockyer’s downtown Los Angeles office for the announcement, applauded the move.

“I know enough from my days as a supervisor’s aide [to county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke] and as a council aide [to City Councilman Nate Holden] to recognize that there’s a problem,” Wesson said.

The lawmaker is a coauthor of AB 698, a bill that, if approved, would set aside $500,000 to make the immigrants’ assistance office a permanent part of the state Justice Department.

Representatives from more than a dozen immigrant rights and advocacy groups, including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Islamic Center of Southern California, the Central American Resource Center and Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, were present to support Lockyer as he made the announcement.

They had numerous stories to tell to support the need for the new office. Typical of them was that of “Lydia,” a 36-year-old Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles who was victimized by a scam in which her identification was used to run up a large debt. Even after it was established that she had been duped, it has been difficult to expunge her record, said Magdalena Reyes Bordeaux, an attorney with the Public Counsel law group.

“It’s a huge problem” because unsuspecting immigrants put their trust in the wrong people and then hesitate to report them to authorities, Bordeaux said.

She told of more sophisticated scams in which individuals, hoping to reduce indebtedness, unwittingly signed Chapter 13 bankruptcy papers, ruining their credit, while paying exorbitant fees.

Anyone seeking assistance and information from the office can call (800) 952-5225 or (916) 322-3360.