Desert Latinos take stand against immigration fraud

Though the steps to the Palm Springs Superior Court on East Tahquitz Canyon Way are typically quiet, they recently became grounds for grassroots community activism.

About a dozen residents stood in a line at the entrance on March 13, silently holding neon posters marked with black permanent marker. Their message was clear: "El Valle Despertó." The valley has awakened. "Ni Una Victima Mas." Not one more victim. "La comunidad está cansada." The community is tired.

Passersby paused to stare, intrigued by the demonstration.

The residents were protesting immigration fraud, a serious problem that has become rampant across the country, particularly after President Barack Obama announced an executive action on immigration reform last fall. Undocumented immigrants desperately looking to obtain a visa are likely to fall prey, often willing to shell out several thousand dollars for legal documents they will never hold in their hands.

The scams can be especially devastating to this population, many of whom have working-class jobs and save modest earnings for months on end to fulfill illusions of obtaining legal documentation. Yet those who do get scammed are unlikely to report the crime because of fear of deportation.

The recent protest at the Palm Springs courthouse focused around Sara Salcido, a Cathedral City-based immigration consultant and paralegal who offers immigration services to the Latino community. She's accused of scamming dozens of Coachella Valley residents out of thousands of dollars, falsely promising them visas.

Salcido — who maintains that she has a 90 percent success rate with the immigration cases she's taken on for the past 11 years — said that some people simply don't qualify for the visas.

"My conscience is clean. If people have a problem, they can come to me. I'm not hiding from anyone. My business remains open," she said.

"To the people that didn't have their cases approved, I'm very sorry but I did the best I could."

Lindy Brau, a Coachella Valley mother of five, said she went to Salcido in 2011 seeking legal advice on an immigration case.

Salcido demanded $3,000 upfront to take on her case. Though Brau was unemployed at the time, she managed to scrape together the money.

Brau said Salcido assured her she qualified for a U-Visa — special documentation given to undocumented immigrants who have been the victims of particular crimes, so long as they cooperate with police — after a stranger broke into her home on two separate occasions.

"She told me that my case qualified (for a U-Visa). She gave me 100 percent certainty," she told The Desert Sun in Spanish.

Salcido told Brau she would have the visa in just a few months. Time passed, with no word from Salcido.

"I was always asking her about my case. But she would get caught up in contradictions," Brau said. "She'd tell me, 'I sent in the paperwork, everything is fine.'"

Brau sued Salcido in small claims court in 2012. In 2013, a Riverside County Superior Court judge ordered a judgment against Salcido in the amount of $4,300.

But Brau didn't receive the money until two years later, when on March 13, Salcido issued money orders totaling $5,236 — which included $936.58 in interest — foregoing a scheduled debtor's examination into her finances.

"I want her to stop scamming people, to stop robbing people and fooling them because we're hardworking people," Brau said. "It's not fair that she comes around trying to scam us so that she can live the good life."

She said she's received ongoing threats from Salcido, who she says uses her immigration status against her as a form of intimidation.

But Salcido denies all of Brau's claims, adding that she took on the woman's case in good faith.

"It's all a lie. All a lie," Salcido said in Spanish of the accusations. "I did my job (with Lindy's case) for a year. I did the best I could. I worked really hard on her case."

Salcido said that according to contract, she wasn't obligated to give Brau her money back after her case was rejected but that she agreed to do it anyway because she had made a verbal agreement to do so.

Salcido filed a countersuit against Brau in 2013 but the complaint was later dismissed.

Rosa Elena Sahagún, an attorney and community activist who works closely with the immigrant community and who defended Brau, said Salcido isn't the only immigration consultant in the region who was worth discussing.

"This is an opportunity that Sara Salcido gave us to raise awareness about immigration fraud," Sahagún told The Desert Sun. "It's a great opportunity today to say that the Coachella Valley is tired and will not put up with any more false promises and any more fraudulent conduct."

Leonard Cravens, a Coachella Valley attorney who's representing Salcido, said his client plans to file a defamation lawsuit against Sahagún within the next month.

"That's not an idle threat, it's going to happen. It has to," he said. "Miss Sahagún doesn't know what she got herself into."

He added that just because a client's case isn't approved, it doesn't mean Salcido committed fraud. He also said the judgment Salcido paid in Lindy Brau's case was a small claims judgment, and was not for fraud.

Hiring immigration consultants — instead of immigration lawyers — comes at a risk, because the advice they can give is limited, and their services are likely overpriced.

Yet most people don't know the difference between the two. An immigration consultant, commonly known as a "notario" in Spanish, is not an attorney nor an accredited representative of the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals, which means they aren't licensed to provide immigration legal advice or services.

An estimated 2,300 immigration services complaints were filed nationwide from 2008 to 2013 with the Federal Trade Commission, according to data obtained by Ayuda Project End, a direct legal services project aimed to help victims of notario fraud through advice, counsel and representation in civil, criminal and immigration court.

Of those consumer complaints, 306 came from California, the largest state by population and, not surprisingly, the state with the highest immigration services complaints to the Federal Trade Commission.

A string of other agencies also receive notario or legal services fraud cases, which makes the existing number of complaints much larger but difficult to track.

Anne Schaufele, staff attorney at Ayuda Project END, said that immigration fraud is a critical problem across the country and in particular California, where there are large pockets of immigrant communities.

"There are a lot of similarities across the country in that immigration attorneys and immigration organizations are not meeting the need. We're not even meeting a fraction of the need," said Schaufele, adding that "nonscrupulous notarios" have filled that need for immigration legal advice.

"What I've seen in my practice is that even with well-intentioned non-attorneys, they make mistakes that can lead to deportation or exclusion from the country."

State Attorney General Kamala Harris issued a warning in late November against scam artists who are looking to target immigrants and their families.

New federal policies "often lead to con artists emerging to prey on vulnerable consumers seeking help with immigration services," Harris' statement said.

"Using unauthorized immigration consultants can delay your application, cost you unnecessary fees and possibly lead to removal proceedings," she added.

Kristin Ford, spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's office, declined to comment on any complaints filed against specific individuals or consumers, but said "Kamala Harris has worked to combat immigration consultant fraud through civil prosecutions and this is an issue our office takes very seriously."

John Hall, spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, also said he cannot speak to specific incidents regarding immigration fraud but that if complaints of any illegal activity of that sort come to them, they review them to determine if criminal charges are warranted.

He declined to comment on whether the DA has received complaints against Salcido.

Hall also said the county's new District Attorney, Mike Hestrin, will look into what the DA can do to address this issue but that there are currently no plans or programs in place.

Tatiana Sanchez is the Equality and Immigration reporter for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at (760) 778-6443, by email at Tatiana.sanchez@desertsun.com or on Twitter, @TatianaYSanchez.