Raiding offices of immigration attorneys with unethical practices? Forget it! They are the barracudas of New York who feed on the defenceless. Ashcroft dare not go after them
Last week, Rani Shahnaz’s sad plight was profiled, here’s an expose of people behind the scenes who prey on hapless immigrants desperate to become legal. For reasons of security, names of victims and law offices have been changed.
Raiding offices of immigration attorneys with unethical practices? Oh, please forget it! They are the big fish muddying the waters, the barracudas of New York who feed on the defenceless and become millionaires. Ashcroft dare not go after them. For that matter, no one wants to mess with sharks — the lawyers lobby that is so powerful that it could cannibalize even the American Attorney General!
Horrible stories I gather during background interviews of South Asians desperate to become legal in America at any cost. Yes, literally at any cost. The swank law offices in Manhattan mine the malleable. On tips from victims, I turn up at two such offices, owned, partnered and operated by white Americans, for an initial consult, posing as — if you please — the proverbial damsel in distress.
On Broadway — America’s most famous theatre district — I enter a sun-drenched foyer filled with oversized palms, burgundy leather-tufted sofas and Tiffany lamps scattered throughout, dotted with ‘must read’ posters on all the walls, happily informing us of hundreds — well not 100s but definitely an eyeful — ways of living in America without becoming illegal.
Viola! This 20th floor office is every potential deportee’s Alice-in-wonderland. Here, dreams can be realized at a drop of a couple of thousands of greenbacks! And they are good to go, at least that’s what is abundantly touted.
Soon, a very pleasant man in a white shirt and tie shows and ushers me into his office. He’s on the wrong side of 50, but staunchly slim and fully wired. Even the salt-and-pepper hair has spikes that gel. He’s the chief here, the big boss who runs this one-man fancy joint. I praise his plants and compliment him on his taste. He returns the favour with a bright grin, taking me on a tour-de-force of his ‘killings’ while hunting for antiques and all things expensive yet so cheap! “I love deals!” Charmed by the attorney (even though one can’t help being reminded of a cadaver as I look him in the eye), it’s his words that are music to my ears. Gosh, the guy must have gulled thousands to their doom by now, I suddenly reflect.
As if he’s read my fleeting thoughts, Jason ratchets up the consultation, rattling away attractive options that “definitely will fly” with the immigration authorities and are at the same time extremely doable!” Fear of failure — are you kidding? He casts a disapproving look my way.
He’s cool as a cucumber. But here’s how Jason fleeced three unfortunate Sikhs one of who has provided me the tip on Jason. He’s a cabby in the City and I meet him quite by accident. Breaking into Punjabi often, Malhor Singh tells me that he’s a new arrival in the “land of opportunity” but is already in debt by several thousand dollars. The tale starts at their local gurdwara where he and two other “praha” (brothers) are duped by an announcement from an Indian to the congregation saying those who want to legalize their status should visit him in his office in Queens and pay $3,000 each. The very next morning, the three show up, cough up the dough and return with a verbal guarantee that “everything will be fine.” Strangely, the contact person is missing.
After several trips to the office, they are told that the agent has disappeared and while the law office did file their documents with the Immigration authorities but “because you folks did not appear at the court hearings, you now have deportation orders issued against you!”
I ask Kiran’s opinion, another attorney, as to what could have happened. “Apparently, the contact person had prepared fraudulent political asylum cases, which these three men signed without reading, and when the court wanted more information/documents, that obviously were not provided, they had deportation orders issued against them.”
Dogged by the fear of being sent back to India, the Sikhs turned up at Jason’s law firm (ever heard of from the frying pan and into the fire?)! Jason the Jew promptly charged each $5,000 and promised them that he’d file for their Green Card, what we call a permanent resident status, based on future job offers. Kiran explains to me: “Knowing fully well that once a deportation order is issued against a person, it is only in extremely rare cases that you can still get the Green Card either through a family sponsor or employment-based application, Jason has misled them.”
Kiran, a Pakistani, has good reputation. She is honest and caring. “While it’s true that “ignorance of the law” is no defence and neither is not knowing English (in the case of the three Sikhs), but it is very unfair that poor, illiterate people are abused by attorneys. Their victims must have complaints issued against such shysters who deserve to lose their attorney licenses,” an angry Kiran says. I meet Hina, with a Green Card since 15 years, who has “miraculously” managed to remain in status by visiting the US once every year and now six months. She’s well off in Pakistan and can afford the trips. “After the last military coup, I decided to apply for my citizenship. But Mike Delia, my law firm, never once clarified that I could only file if I had lived in the US for two-and-a-half years out of the last five years since my Green Card.
“They charged me $3,000 and filed my citizenship application.” Obviously, the case got thrown out of the window and Hina lost her $3000! She says she would never have gone this route had she the right information, “I know that lying is a felony and I can get into big trouble here.”
One more classic example of how an Asian law firm has forever ruined Pakistani-born British nationals who came to the US on a visa waiver: The family decided to stay here and bought a motel. Shah Associates mislead them by not spelling out the correct steps towards obtaining a Green Card. They were not told that before setting up a business, they needed to obtain a business visa, and not the other way around. Today, while they meet all the requirements — run a million-dollar business, speak English and are college graduates, the couple can’t leave the US, because if they do, they will be stopped from ever re-entering.
“When people come to the US, the legal advice they receive is so flawed that they end up as fugitives from the law — if caught they get deported, the rest are doomed never to return home,” Kiran says as she tells me of the latest case she’s fighting on behalf of a Pakistani man — so wretched that it breaks the heart. He came here many years ago and would have become legal during the Amnesty of 2000, but his attorney bungled. Today, Azhar is hiding from the law, living on nothing, putting in three shifts as a loader. His body is bent, his face full of wrinkles, hands swollen with arthritis and nails covered in dirt. Tears stream down his eyes as he shows me his daughter’s photo that was married last month.
“And I was not there,” he sobs as his frail frame shakes with a coughing fit. He has bronchitis but no money to get medical help, or even buy warm clothes. “I can’t go back,” I am a dead man walking.
Raiding offices of immigration attorneys with unethical practices? Forget it! They are the barracudas of New York who feed on the defenceless. Ashcroft dare not go after them 
