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City Council debates how to regulate immigration service providers

City Councilman Dennis O’Brien’s attempt at regulating immigration services in Philadelphia took a step back Monday when a vote on his bill was put on hold.

City Councilman Dennis O'Brien's attempt at regulating immigration services in Philadelphia took a step back Monday when a vote on his bill was put on hold.

Since March, O'Brien has been working to get consensus on a bill that would create licensing standards for businesses and people providing immigration services. It would also prohibit anyone who is not a licensed lawyer, or previously certified by the federal Board of Immigration Appeals, from giving legal advice on immigration matters.

The idea is to protect immigrants from fraudulent services.

Council's Licenses and Inspections Committee, led by Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez, heard testimony on the proposed legislation but postponed a vote to Dec. 3 because of "logistical issues surrounding the enforcement," of the bill, Sanchez said.

The bill was crafted in response to complaints that immigrants have been going to people they perceive as notarios — in Latin American countries, a notario publico is a lawyer — seeking legal help in obtaining immigration documents, including residency status. However, some of the "notarios" in Philadelphia are not attorneys and have made false promises to immigrants, many of whom  have paid thousands of dollars in such scams.

O'Brien blamed the administration for filing its amendments to the bill late Friday afternoon.

Mayor Nutter's spokesman Mark McDonald said the administration provided suggestions to the bill but would not discuss specifics.

"We'll provide testimony at a later hearing," McDonald said.

The administration's concern is over the provision that the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections would be the enforcement agency to oversee the licensing of immigration service providers.

The bill, if passed, would give yet another responsibility to L&I, which has recently been cited as an underfunded and overworked department.

The administration is in the process of reviewing a blue-ribbon report that recommended L&I be split into two new departments focusing on building safety and business compliance, respectively.

The actual licensing of immigration service providers was an issue for Sanchez, the committee chair.

"Do we give an opening to bad actors to come in and purport that they are officially licensed," Sanchez said following the hearing.

O'Brien said he was willing to compromise on the type of license, or registration, the service providers should be required to carry but he insists L&I has to be involved.

"We need L&I's enforcement because we have no other enforcement mechanism," O'Brien said. "And if you don't have enforcement, you have nothing."

Penalties, as defined in the current draft, could result in fines and 90 days in jail.

Laurie Malone, deputy of the pre-trial division on the District Attorney's Office, said the office has not prosecuted anyone for "notario fraud" in part because of the lack of a contract or any other document to use as evidence.

"The main challenge is we don't have a paper trail of what the service provider was supposed to provide," Malone said.

O'Brien's bill would require a detailed contract be made and signed by both parties.

"This is a very, very important issue because when these people get ripped off... then they're committing fraud," O'Brien said. "There is no second chance, they are booted."

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