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May 31, 2005 latimes.com : California

# Lawyers sometimes become celebrities by offering reliable data to people hungry for it.

By Anna Gorman, Times Staff Writer

When Juan Antonio Sigala was arrested in Puerto Rico by U.S. immigration agents in 1998 and faced deportation, he knew whom to call for help: South Pasadena attorney Enrique Arevalo.

Sigala, who had gone to San Juan for an AIDS conference, knew of Arevalo from listening to the lawyer's Spanish-language radio show in Los Angeles that focuses on immigration law.

"I didn't have much faith in lawyers," said Sigala, 37, a Mexican immigrant who was working for an HIV-prevention organization at the time. "But after listening to his show, I thought I should try."

With Arevalo's help, Sigala was granted political asylum â€â€