Tulsa police are urging the immigrant community to be cautious when searching for legal services — warning about the potential for financial schemes.
Detective Giovanni De La Paz with Tulsa Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit says he’s recently investigated two cases of immigration-related fraud. There are more cases like this in Dallas and Oklahoma City, he says, emphasizing everyone should thoroughly vet the attorneys they’re hiring.
“I’m Latino too,” he said. “They just have to be careful with who they trust with their money just ‘cause they’re scammers everywhere.”
In one recent case, De La Paz says six members of a single household drove to Dallas to meet with a notary, only to be scammed out of money.
“So far, what we’re thinking is that these notaries are making it seem like they’re lawyers, and that they’re gonna be able to help them claim U visas, because if they’re victims of some sort of crime, then these people are paying out thousands and thousands of dollars to them,” De La Paz said.
U visas, signifying U noninmmigrant status, are assigned to some crime victims who are actively helping investigators prosecute cases, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
De La Paz says these “notaries” are not lawyers and never start the U visa application process, instead pocketing the money.
In a separate case, De La Paz says a Spanish-speaking interpreter in Tulsa was pretending to be a representative for an attorney and collecting money from families of clients detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement without the attorney’s knowledge.
“That one probably had closer to 15 victims, but I could only get in contact with five, because some of them were already deported, so it was impossible to talk to them,” he said. “It’s a little bit more chaotic because the translator kept going, months and months, to these people’s houses, representing supposedly the lawyer. The lawyer had no idea, she was never doing any legal work for any of those victims. And that lady, she got, I want to say it was close to $25,000.”
De La Paz wouldn’t disclose the name of the lawyer or the interpreter. He says the case is now with the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office to determine if charges will be filed.
Deputy Mayor Krystal Reyes says police notified her about the U visa fraud case. She says people who are turning to immigration lawyers for help right now are vulnerable.
“We do have a concern around who is taking advantage of individuals in a situation where they might be desperate or very, very worried,” Reyes said.
She says these cases have presented an opportunity to clarify the differences between notaries in the U.S. and “notarios” in Latin American countries, who are typically highly-trained legal professionals and attorneys.
“There’s been awareness building about notario (notary) fraud and just making sure that someone who’s saying they’re a notario (notary) here may not necessarily be a lawyer,” she said.
While Reyes can’t speak to the specifics of the case, she hears anecdotally that people may be paying a lot of money and not seeing a return. She recommends people look up a lawyer’s information through the Oklahoma Bar Association to make sure they are qualified to practice law.
Another website is the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which has a list of vetted immigration lawyers across the country, she says.
“And then, just making sure that when they’re engaging with a lawyer, they know exactly what’s being submitted on their behalf,” Reyes said. “They should be able to see everything, nothing should be done without their approval. So that’s very important.”
If you suspect you are a victim of fraud, you can file a police report on the Tulsa Police Department’s website and report the attorney to the Oklahoma Bar Association.
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
