Legal scams targeting newly-arrived immigrants are rampant in Maine. Legal aid groups said the increase in the number of asylum seekers and the complexity of the immigration court system are creating opportunities for exploitation. Maine's Attorney General is responding with a new effort to combat the abuses, and has already filed suit against a Portland-area pastor for allegedly defrauding dozens of immigrants.
François is a schoolteacher who said he and his family are fleeing political violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. François is not his real name, he asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of his case. To get to the U.S., he said his family first flew to Brazil, then traversed much of Central and South America by bus and on foot to claim asylum at the southern border.
Arriving in Maine in 2022, François said he had no money left, and tried to find free legal help to file an asylum case.
But he said the legal aid organizations he approached were overwhelmed, struggling to keep up with demand.
François said he was then introduced to a fellow Congolese community member who offered to help, charging somewhere between $800 and $1,000. François said he knew the man was not a lawyer, but felt he had no choice. He said he scraped together the money by borrowing from community members.
"He made us pay a lot of money," François said, in French. "And he didn’t finish the job," leaving François to file additional documents on his own after the initial claim was submitted.
Legal aid groups said François’ situation is part of a rampant problem in Maine.
"For people who have bad intentions, yeah, it's very easy. It's a good market for them to take money," said Mathurin Ngoy, with the nonprofit Hope Acts. Among other programs, Hoep Acts runs a free asylum application clinic in Portland.
But Ngoy said many new arrivals aren’t aware of these programs, and often turn to fellow community members who are not qualified to offer legal assistance.
Ngoy said he met one woman who said she’d paid her pastor $1,000 to file her asylum case. But when her work permit was denied sometime later, Ngoy said he called the immigration court and learned the original asylum claim had never been received.
"They are spending money and their time for nothing," he said.
And even worse, potentially derailing their pursuit of legal protection in the U.S..
"It's really hard to, to go back, repair, explain and salvage these cases," said Alice Kopij, co-legal director at the Portland-based Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project. She said her organization sees people who’ve fallen victim to dubious legal advice on a weekly, if not daily basis.
Sometimes, Kopij said, it's intentional fraud, other times it's just bad advice from a well-meaning acquaintance. But either way, she said, "misrepresentations on an asylum claim, whether someone knowingly did it or not, can result in losing your case, which can mean deportation, life or death consequences."
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey is pushing a new effort to clamp down on these unlicensed services.
His office has filed a civil suit against one Portland-area pastor, Shonda Okonda, who allegedly defrauded more than 50 people by falsely advertising himself as an immigration legal expert, then submitting forms with “incomplete, misleading, an even incorrect information.”
Additionally, Frey alleges Okonda used his position as a pastor to pressure clients into donating money to his church.
"It was really just a mess. And it was inconsistent with the rights that these new Mainers had to lawful services," Frey said.
Okonda denies the allegations.
"I did not deceive people that I was a lawyer," he said. "Never."
Okonda said he was trying to help new immigrants, some of whom he said were sleeping in his church because they were homeless. He said the money he received was given voluntarily.
Frey said he hopes the case can shed light on the issue. His office has also launched a new tip line, with the option to submit anonymously.
But he said it can be difficult for many victims to come forward, because of language barriers, fears of engaging with the legal system, and social ties.
"The complaint might be against somebody else in their own community," Frey said. "These are pressures against the filing of a complaint."
François, the Congolese schoolteacher, said he eventually cut ties with the man who filed his asylum claim, then got his work permit and hired a real lawyer.
But he said he probably won't use the Attorney General’s tip line to report the man, because he thinks his true intention was to help, even if he did charge an exorbitant amount of money.
"All we can do," he said, "is encourage those who are arriving now not to fall into that trap."
