May 31, 2004
The Treason Lobby’s Phony Lawyer Racket
By
Juan Mann
Want to pretend you’re an attorney
without ever going to law school or taking the bar exam?
Want to practice law and represent
clients before federal executive agencies without a
state bar license—and not get
thrown in jail?
Then immigration law is for you!
Yes, for everyone who wants to save
tens of thousands of dollars in law school
tuition and play “lawyer” anyhow—without
even so much as a college degree—the Treason Lobby can
help. You can be an “accredited representative”
of a non-profit, religious, charitable or “social
service” organization!
This bizarre career path is made
possible by the
Treason Lobby’s classic
iron-triangle partnership with the federal
immigration bureaucracy of the Department of Homeland
Security’s Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS),
and the Department of Justice’s alien-friendly Executive
Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).
Federal immigration regulations
allow non-profit groups to hire employees to fill the
function of lawyers and represent immigration clients
before the EOIR and the DHS.
These non-attorneys from
“recognized” groups can give legal advice to their
“clients” and charge fees—just as if they were in
a law firm.
It’s all right there in the Code of
Federal Regulations. 8 C.F.R. sections
1292.1 and
1292.2.
A separate exception allows for any
“reputable individual of good moral character”
to represent aliens in Immigration Court too. But, to
fit this exception, there must be a preexisting
relationship between the parties. And no fees can be
charged.
For the Treason Lobby’s special
non-profit exception, however, the “recognized” groups
can take alien clients right off the street . . . and
right under the nose of their definitely for-profit
allies in the immigration bar, who really are
licensed attorneys.
The Treason Lobby’s flagship
professional association for immigration attorneys –
the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)
– apparently doesn’t have much to say about
non-attorneys muscling in on their turf.
[VDARE.com note: Although it does have
something to say about VDARE.com; its new
"Restrictionist Watch" feature attacks Peter
Brimelow
here and Juan Mann
here—pdf file, page 11.]
This silence may well be explained
by the fact that many of the same non-profit
“recognized” groups have
AILA member attorneys on staff too.
The EOIR and the DHS currently
permit 503 “recognized organizations” of the
Treason Lobby to have 619 of their employees playing
“lawyer.” These folks are allowed by the federal
government to represent clients in EOIR Immigration
Court, before the EOIR’s appellate body called the Board
of Immigration Appeals (BIA), and before Eduardo
Aguirre’s DHS-USCIS service centers and district
offices.
The EOIR publishes an updated list
of the “recognized organizations” and
“accredited representatives” every three months. The
list of organizations authorized by the Departments of
Justice and Homeland Security to employ pretend-lawyers
reads like a who’s who of the Open Borders Lobby.
VDARE.com readers can already guess
what’s coming. Guess who’s the biggest?
Yes! Out of the 503 “recognized
organizations,” the undisputed leader of the pack,
with 156 separate
non-profit groups for a whopping 31 percent of the
nationwide total, is—
Catholic Charities!
Then there are 26
Lutheran groups, 22 offices of something called “The
International Institute,” 18 offices of “The
International Rescue Committee,” 13
Jewish groups, 8 “World Relief Corporation”
offices, 3 Quakers, 2 Episcopalians, and 2
“interfaith” groups.
The rest are a hodgepodge of legal
aid operations and storefront leftist causes. Here’s a
sample:
