Thread: UT-Scam victims being deported before they can testify

Scam victims being deported before they can testify

By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 09/13/2009 11:47:14 PM MDT

Undocumented immigrants claim legal assistant posed as a lawyer.

At least a half-dozen people who say a Clinton woman scammed them and scores of other immigrants trying to legalize their status have been deported.

Now, West Jordan attorney Aaron Tarin is scrambling to keep the other alleged victims in the country long enough to serve as witnesses in the case against Leticia Avila.

"We're in a race against immigration to get justice," Tarin said last week.

A Utah State Bar complaint accuses Avila of posing as an attorney and doing nothing to help people like Maria Villalobos get visas or citizenship applications approved.

Villalobos -- who expects to be deported soon -- said she made a down payment of $750 for help on getting legal residency but all Avila did was ask an immigration judge for more time. When the judge got impatient, Avila urged her to falsely say she had been living in the United States for 10 years, a circumstance that might have made her eligible to stay, according to Villalobos.

Avila stopped returning her calls after she refused, Villalobos said. Now, she is preparing to return to her native Mexico with her four children , ages 14, 10, 6 and 3.

"I don't want to go," she said. "We don't have anything there."

'The wrong message to send'

Some of Avila's former clients say they believed that in exchange for their testimony, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would allow them to stay in the United States.

But after a federal investigation did not produce criminal charges, the immigrants were put in deportation proceedings.

ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said witnesses were granted temporary work permits but none of them were told they could remain permanently. She called fighting fraud a "priority," but said there are no guarantees victims who come forward won't be deported -- the agency considers each person's circumstances and the law.

Tarin said he believes it was implied the victims would have a legal way to stay. The immigrants who did not come forward might be in a better position now, he said.

"It's the wrong message to send," Tarin said, saying deportations make immigrants afraid to report crime.

Paul Cassell, a University of Utah law professor and a nationally known proponent of victims' rights, said victims should not be penalized for reporting a crime. But victims who are undocumented also should not be protected from deportation if authorities discover their illegal status some other way, he said.

"They should be in no worse or no better position for reporting a crime," said Cassell.

Proving the case

Avila, who works as a legal assistant, could not be reached for comment but has denied the allegations. In court filings, she says she never met some of the alleged victims and that others fabricated their claims in the hope of remaining in the country under victims' visas.

A counter-complaint filed by Avila accuses the undocumented immigrants and their attorneys of slander and asks for at least $3.5 million in monetary damages.

Gregory Sanders, a lawyer for the Bar, said he would have liked to have all 17 victims named in the Bar complaint give taped depositions but says he can still prove the case. The complaint seeks not only an order barring Avila from practicing law, but also restitution for the immigrants.

Ogden attorney Roy Cole said he isn't surprised by the allegations against Avila.

The two arranged in January for Avila to refer immigration cases to him, but Cole said he terminated the deal in just a few months. The attorney said he did the paperwork himself but later learned that Avila claimed to some clients that she was investigating the matters and had charged them $500.

Cole also said Avila claimed to have attended law school at the University of Utah under someone else's name, but her account about her education didn't check out and he was unable to verify her work history.

A matter of trust

State Bar President Stephen Owens said the Bar complaint is part of an effort to stop those who are using religious or cultural links to take advantage of immigrants who are desperate to legalize their status.

Most alleged victims said they trusted Avila because she was a fellow member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Twenty-eight came forward several years ago and submitted sworn affidavits.

Four told The Tribune that Avila said she was a lawyer and required them to pay her in cash. The Tribune has agreed not to identify those who requested anonymity for fear of losing their jobs.

A Peruvian couple said they worry about finding appropriate services for their developmentally disabled teenage son.

And a man from Uruguay said he trusted Avila, who told him that she had had a vision of Latinos coming forward for her help. But the $4,000 in cash he gave her got him nothing and he recently received a letter ordering him to appear in immigration court.

"I don't want to return," the man said. "I've got my life here. I've even purchased my burial plot here."

Tony Yapias, an immigration activist in Utah, said most people who are in the United States illegally have no way to legalize their presence but trust a fellow church member who says it can be done.

"These people who are scamming them don't have a conscience," he said.

pmanson@sltrib.com

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13329769?source=rss

A Peruvian couple said they worry about finding appropriate services for their developmentally disabled teenage son.

How long have they been here? Did they bring this son with them expecting US to supply the 'appropriate services'?

Get a video testimony from them and then deport them. No reason for them to stay here.

Originally Posted by miguelina

Get a video testimony from them and then deport them. No reason for them to stay here.

That is to easy...

Kathyet