Nashville, Tenn. – When Salvadoran immigrant Irma Yolanda Membreno-Aleman wanted to apply for temporary asylum, she did what she would have done for any legal matter back home: She went to see a notario publico. It was a lost-in-translation mistake that cost her thousands of dollars, a rejection of her petition and loss of her work authorization and her job, a lawsuit claims.
In much of Latin America, most notaries also are lawyers.
In the United States, notaries public are not lawyers and cannot give legal advice; they can administer oaths and witness signatures, and that’s it.
The difference has allowed scam artists to prey on immigrants with limited English skills and little understanding of the American legal system by misrepresenting themselves as lawyers, immigration lawyers say.
It is a growing problem. But prosecutors rarely bring cases against these scam artists, in part because the victims are often in this country illegally and are afraid to come forward.
Charles Kuck, vice president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said there have been tens of thousands of cases in which notaries passed themselves off as lawyers.
Also, fraudulent and incorrect documents filed by notaries add up to “an unbelievable waste of taxpayer money,” Kuck said.
“It makes it harder for judges to wade through the real asylum cases when you’ve got to wade through so much garbage.”
Ceja Enterprises Inc. in Nashville advertises itself in Spanish as an office that provides legal aid, including help with immigration papers.
But Carmen Ceja is a notary public, and her business card refers to her as a notaria publica.
Nashville lawyer Sean Lewis, who is suing Ceja on behalf of Membreno, said many notaries advertise services they are unqualified to perform, such as tax preparation and divorce. (Membreno’s case was reopened, and she is living in the U.S. under a temporary protective status.)
Ceja’s attorney, Geoffrey Coston, said Ceja’s office offers “just an interpretation service,” Coston said.
He said the sign outside her office advertising legal aid was “a bad sign” that needed to change. But he said he did not believe her business card was confusing to most people.
“Most people go to her knowing she’s not an attorney,” he said. “They go because they can’t afford an attorney.”
Kuck said any federal immigration reform that offers some type of amnesty to illegal immigrants will make the problem worse if action is not first taken against notarios who prey on immigrants.
Otherwise, notarios are “going to be falling from the trees trying to rip people off.”
In Texas, Attorney General Greg Abbott has shut down about 40 people posing as immigration attorneys or consultants during his four years in office. Many of them were notaries.
