Two men face federal charges after one allegedly impersonated an attorney in immigration court. What happens to the immigrants who were fraudulently represented?
SAN ANTONIO — The U.S. Department of Justice is bringing charges against two San Antonio-area men for allegedly conspiring in an attorney impersonation scheme, according to a Department of Justice release.
Court documents say multiple migrants were represented by the impersonator on “at least 100 different occasions.”
While this could mean a significant setback in those migrants’ cases, the Texas State Director for the League of United Latin-American Citizens told KENS 5 their organization would attempt to help any migrants that reach out.
According to the Department of Justice, the scheme began back in December of 2019.
The department release states, “Jose Maria Guerrero, 68, of Olmos Park, and Rodolfo Solis Zepeda, 75, of San Antonio, devised a scheme to have Guerrero, who is not a licensed attorney, impersonate Zepeda, who is a licensed attorney, in telephonic immigration court hearings. Guerrero was formerly a Texas licensed attorney who resigned from the Texas bar in lieu of disciplinary actions in 2016.”
Court documents allege that Guerrero, who could not legally serve as an attorney, claimed to be Zepeda when representing at least five different migrants in immigration court. Guerrero did this using telephonic court appearances during the pandemic and did so on at least 100 different occasions.
Immigration attorney Gerardo Menchaca told KENS 5 Thursday this could absolutely create a problem for the migrants who trusted the attorneys.
“If the hearing that you already had was done by a non-lawyer, it’s conceivable that the hearing is going to be thrown out and you are going to get a new hearing date. But that new hearing date may not come for years, so the victims are the clients that may need to wait for years to get another hearing to redo the one that they already did,” Menchaca said.
Another concern, Menchaca said, would be that any migrants who paid for the false representation would then have no way to get the money back.
“If you’ve been saving for years to pay a lawyer and now you need a new lawyer, now you have to save again for another five years, that’s going to hurt to. And, heaven forbid, in the meantime you could lose your case,” Mechaca said.
The release states that Guerrero and Zepeda are charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and five counts of false statements.
Zepeda is still able to practice law in Texas according to the State Bar of Texas website.
KENS 5 reached out to Zepeda’s law office multiple times Friday using the number provided on the State Bar website, but Zepada’s representative eventually decided not to comment.
LULAC Texas State Director Rodolfo Rosales Jr. said they would attempt to help any migrants affected by the alleged scheme if those migrants reached out.
“They can contact us at our website at lulac.org and they can let us know what their situation is and then we can contact people here in San Antonio. The majority of our attorneys aren’t immigration attorneys, but many of them know immigration attorneys. We can help them find a reputable attorney,” Rosales said.
Rosales said LULAC would not have funds to pay additional attorneys but the organization would use their connections to help any migrants affected by the scheme.