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June 9 , 2011

The Wrong Help Can Hurt: Beware of Immigration Scams

Introduction

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) launched today a national, multi-agency initiative to combat immigration services scams. The immigration scams targeted by this initiative specifically involve the unauthorized practice of immigration law (UPIL), which occurs when legal advice and/or representation regarding immigration matters is provided by an individual who is not an attorney or accredited representative. UPIL endangers the integrity of our immigration system and victimizes members of the immigrant community.

Understanding the gravity of this deceptive practice, the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and USCIS have teamed with state and local partners to combat immigration services scams on all fronts.

This national initiative is set upon three pillars:

Enforcement – encouraging individuals and communities to report scams and ramping up enforcement actions at the federal, state and local levels

Education – educating the public about how to recognize and avoid immigration scams and how to make smart choices when choosing legal advice and representation

Continued Collaboration – fostering interagency collaboration to support investigation and prosecution efforts, and increasing the number of legitimate immigration legal service provider organizations and accredited representatives, particularly in underserved areas
USCIS’s role in this initiative focuses on the public education element of combating immigration scams that include UPIL.

Unauthorized Practice of Immigration Law

The term unauthorized practice of immigration law generally refers to the provision of legal advice and/or representation regarding immigration matters by an individual who is not an attorney or accredited representative. Legal advice may include:

How to answer questions on your immigration forms; and

What immigration options an applicant or petitioner may have.

Background

During the past 18 months, USCIS has worked closely with its federal, state and local partners to learn more about UPIL and how the practice adversely impacts not only immigrant communities, but all USCIS applicants and petitioners. As the first step, USCIS hosted a national stakeholder engagement session in January 2010. Based on the individual feedback received from participants and in an effort to learn more about this issue in local jurisdictions, USCIS identified seven partner cities in which to focus initial efforts: Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Fresno, Los Angeles, New York and San Antonio.

Each partner city hosted meetings with federal, state and local government partners to discuss existing resources, reporting mechanisms and challenges related to investigating and prosecuting UPIL-related immigration services scams. Following these government meetings, the partner cities hosted engagement sessions with community-based organizations, advocacy groups, state and local government partners and other interested stakeholders to discuss the scope of the UPIL problem in each jurisdiction, introduce the USCIS initiative, and solicit individual feedback to help inform our public education efforts. In each of the partner locations, there has been a significant amount of interest and commitment from federal, state and local partners to work collaboratively to address this issue.

The individual views shared during these engagement sessions helped inform the development and implementation of USCIS’s public education strategy, and outreach and educational materials.

Three Pillars: Enforcement, Education, Continued Collaboration

Enforcement

The enforcement component of the initiative focuses on collaboration between federal, state and local law enforcement partners to support investigation and prosecution efforts. As part of this effort, USCIS developed information for our Web resource center regarding state laws prohibiting UPIL as well as each state’s process for reporting having been a victim of UPIL.

Additionally, USCIS has signed a memorandum of understanding with the FTC which for the first time grants USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security officers access to FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network. Sentinel, as the network is called, is a secure online database that holds more than 6 million consumer fraud complaints. Shared with more than 500 law enforcement entities including ICE, DOJ and now USCIS, it is the primary repository for cases involving allegations of immigration services scams. Sentinel will serve as an investigative tool for USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security officers and will bolster communication between organizations on immigration services scam-related cases.

Education

The education component of the initiative focuses on empowering immigrant communities and all USCIS applicants and petitioners to avoid unscrupulous individuals and businesses engaged in UPIL. USCIS’s efforts are primarily aimed at providing immigrants with the information they need to make wise choices when seeking legal advice and representation on immigration matters. This information will include guidance on how to verify the eligibility of individuals who claim to be attorneys or accredited representatives, and how to recognize and avoid individuals and businesses that are engaged in UPIL.

Fundamental to this effort is a collection of educational resources developed by USCIS through close collaboration with all our partners and colleagues. The central message of the materials: “The Wrong Help Can Hurt – Beware of Immigration Scams.”

The collection includes:

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