Office Location is Irving, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico
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Office Location is Irving, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico
For many individuals and families, the journey toward a new life in the United States is fueled by hope, hard work, and sacrifice. Unfortunately, this vulnerability makes the immigrant community a prime target for exploitation. Every week, our office speaks with individuals who have lost thousands of dollars, years of progress, and most devastatingly, their legal peace of mind to predatory “notario” scams or subpar legal representation.
If you have had a negative experience with an immigration consultant, a predatory notary, or an attorney who did not prioritize your case, you are not alone. More importantly: your journey does not have to end here.
Immigration law is incredibly complex, second only to U.S. tax law in its technical difficulty. Despite this, unauthorized individuals often pose as legal experts. In Latin American countries, a “notario público” is a highly trained attorney. In the United States, however, a notary public is simply someone licensed to witness signatures. Predatory consultants often weaponize this linguistic confusion to scam well-meaning families out of their hard-earned savings while providing completely fraudulent, harmful legal advice.
Protecting families from this specific brand of exploitation is personal to our firm. Decades ago, our founding attorney, John W. Lawit, recognized that the law was failing to protect vulnerable immigrants from predatory, unlicensed actors.
To stop this epidemic of fraud, Mr. Lawit authored and successfully lobbied for the passage of the landmark Immigration and Nationality Law Practice Act in New Mexico. Passed in 1987, it was the first law of its kind in the entire United States explicitly built to criminalize and penalize “notario fraud” and the unauthorized practice of law (UPL) in immigration matters.
The law established a clear standard, noting that its core mission is “to prevent the unauthorized practice of law by nonlawyers who hold themselves out as immigration consultants rendering services in immigration, nationality or citizenship matters…” N.M. Stat. Ann. § 36-3-2 (2025).
Furthermore, Mr. Lawit drafted the law to explicitly strip away the financial incentive for fraudulent actors, making it unequivocally clear that:
“On or after the effective date of the Immigration and Nationality Law Practice Act, it shall be unlawful for any person to render for compensation any service constituting the unlawful practice of law or to otherwise violate any provision of the Immigration and Nationality Law Practice Act.” N.M. Stat. Ann. § 36-3-5 (2025).
Mr. Lawit’s legal framework became the national blueprint. Over the next thirty years, dozens of other states across the country copied his draft to protect immigrants in their own jurisdictions. When you work with our firm, you are working with the team led by the attorney who quite literally wrote the law on consumer protection in immigration.
If you have fallen victim to an unauthorized consultant or received poor service from a previous representative, you must take swift action to fix your status:
A bad experience in the past does not mean you don’t have a viable path forward today. Our firm specializes in auditing damaged cases, untangling the mess left behind by unqualified actors, and designing legitimate, legally sound strategies to secure your future.
If you have been harmed by unauthorized immigration practices, do not wait for your case to be irrevocably damaged. Assert your rights and secure qualified legal counsel immediately. Contact our office at 214-609-2242 for a professional evaluation of your case.
