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Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey and the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition released resources on Tuesday to warn immigrant communities about unauthorized practices of immigration law.
The new section on the website of the Office of the Attorney General provides guidance to guard against scams, outlines who is authorized to provide legal advice on immigrant cases, and offers resources for immigrants to handle their cases themselves while awaiting legal representation.
“Immigration law is both complicated and extremely consequential,” Frey wrote in a statement. “We are deeply concerned about the ramifications for New Mainers who might be spending hard-earned money on dubious legal advice from people holding themselves out to be experts on these critical issues. We already know of some victims who have faced negative repercussions for legal mistakes made by these scammers.”
The resources come after years of conversations between service providers and immigration attorneys. During a recent kick-off meeting hosted by MIRC, Frey and his staff previewed the resources for more than 30 community organizations. Overall, MIRC represents more than 100 immigrant organizations across the state.
“The unlawful practice of law exploits those who are most vulnerable, undermines due process, and harms all our communities,” Ruben Torres, who serves as the advocacy, communications and policy manager for MIRC, wrote in a statement. Torres described the resource hub as the first step toward preventing exploitation and better protecting immigrants in Maine.
Danna Hayes, special assistant to the Attorney General, said the office does not have statistics on how common phony immigration practices are in Maine, but the resource hub includes a place to submit reports of potential immigration scams, in an effort to gather more information. “It is truly an evolving issue where, as we dig more, we discover more affected individuals,” Hayes said.
However, specific instances of alleged fraud provide insight into these scams. For example, the Attorney General’s Office filed a claim in December against Westbrook resident Shonda Okonda for injunctive relief and civil penalties for unfair and deceptive practices under the Maine Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The claim, which Okonda denies, alleges that he portrayed himself “as an experienced and benevolent advisor on the immigration process” who has “solicited and accepted thousands of dollars for providing legal assistance to his ‘clients’ with their immigration paperwork.”
Immigration attorneys and accredited representatives are the only people who can give legal advice about an immigration case under the Maine Immigration and Nationality Law Assistance Act. The resource hub directs people to ways to look up licenses and accreditations to make sure they are who they say they are.
Anyone else is limited to providing non-legal help, which could be translating paperwork or helping an immigrant obtain documents, such as birth or marriage certificates, that may be needed to submit immigration forms.
However, the resource hub explains that someone who is not an immigration attorney or accredited representative cannot provide legal assistance with immigration paperwork (such as suggesting answers to put on forms), keep money for immigration services not performed, or otherwise say that they have special influence with any government agency or employee.
In addition to the resources added to the website, the Attorney General’s Office hopes to help legal experts who want to focus on assisting immigrants take advantage of grant opportunities to receive advanced training and certifications.
“We are working with MIRC to identify members of the community who could become [Department of Justice] accredited representatives who would be legally able to provide a certain amount of support to people needing assistance with immigration procedures,” Hayes said.
There are programs throughout the U.S. available to accredit attorneys, or laypeople, without immigration experience to provide this support and the AG’s office will also provide funding for a number of people to become accredited, Hayes said.
The number of people and total funding that will go toward accreditations is to be determined, Hayes said, and will be dependent on a number of factors, such as level of interest and availability within existing programs.
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