Small Businesses Born of Amnesty Adjust to Calm

In the days after the amnesty filing period ended Wednesday, the estimated 100 businesses that set up shop in the San Fernando Valley to offer immigration-related services were recovering from the last-minute frenzy the way a reveler might recover from a New Year’s Eve hangover.

Most were taking things pretty slow.

Inside Amnistia Ayuda, a small storefront in North Hollywood, manager Oscar Martinez sat alone Thursday surveying the empty shop with its dirty, littered floors and folding chairs lined up against the walls. Only the night before, the shop had been brimming with people, providing standing room only to eager amnesty applicants.

“For the last two weeks there have been 100 cases a day and no time for lunch, nothing,” Martinez said. “Today I went home for a three-hour lunch.”

‘Immigration Consultant’

With an estimated 112,000 people in the Valley filing for legal residence during the year-long application period that ended May 4, businesses cropped up from Canoga Park to North Hollywood to cash in on the amnesty-related bonanza.

“People’s creativity was unlimited. They absolutely put up amnesty signs anywhere,” said Los Angeles Deputy City Atty. Ellen R. Pais, who prosecutes immigration-related fraud cases. “Everybody was doubling as an immigration consultant.”

So quickly did the businesses proliferate, some authorities mused Friday, that it was a wonder more people weren’t victimized. Out of hundreds of complaints filed with the Amnesty and Immigration Consumer Fraud Task Force at the Los Angeles city attorney’s office, only 20 were directed at Valley businesses, Pais said.

“Some saw the amnesty program as an opportunity to extort money from very vulnerable people,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia W. Strickland of Ventura County, addressing the issue of immigration-related fraud in Southern California. “But I think the majority of people who are providing immigration service of one kind or another are making at least a reasonable effort to provide them in a responsible fashion.”

Over the past year, the entrepreneurial spirit was widely evident as tax preparers, attorneys or notaries hurriedly hung shingles advertising their newly adopted field of expertise--immigration consulting. Because there are no regulations governing immigration consulting services, many had no previous experience with immigration matters, Pais said.

Some hastily set up shop in mini-malls or along busy thoroughfares such as Vanowen Street and Van Nuys Boulevard. Still others converted a corner of a furniture shop, or a classroom of a driving school or a den in their home.

“Very few agencies that opened up were strictly in the amnesty business. Most had another business,” said Bob Devore, who operated his Northridge Immigration Services in his postal-service company on Reseda Boulevard.

“I had the empty desk, so why not?” said Devore. He charged $700 for filing an individual application and $1,000 for families.

And now, after taking a breather, most of the Valley immigration consultants interviewed say they plan to ease into the next phase of the legalization process.

“Now, we’ll be able to have coffee in the morning instead of in the afternoon like we have been,” said Juan Volpini, owner of the Metropolitan Immigration Center of America in Van Nuys. During the past few weeks, he said, about 150 customers daily had filled the small converted house.

A few blocks away, Jay Sudit attended to only a handful of customers on Thursday. Sudit, the owner of Surjob, an immigration consulting business, planned his first day off in months. But, soon afterward, he will begin offering free English and American government classes, he said.

“We will continue to stay open and see what happens,” said Hamid Dameshi, owner of Central Immigration Service with offices in North Hollywood, Reseda and Los Angeles. A former court interpreter with a master’s degree in international relations, Dameshi charged individuals $115 for filing an application.

Many immigration consultants say they plan to remain open indefinitely, hoping that those whose amnesty applications they helped fill out will become long-term customers during the remaining phases of the legalization process.

“I’ll be waiting for them in case they need any help, because there are always the little things that need to be rectified. Many of them already don’t know what to do next . . . I encourage them to come to me,” said Henry Kodash, the owner of Amnistia Ayuda.

“I think those who are more business-minded will realize this is a much broader business opportunity than just completion of amnesty forms,” Pais said.

To complete those forms, the consulting businesses charged customers fees ranging from $75 to $1,500 for individuals, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. INS employees said some attorneys and consultants charged as much as $3,000 to process a family’s application.

“It seems to me that everybody is out there trying to take advantage of the situation,” said Ken Wilson, chief legalization officer at the INS’s San Fernando Legalization Office.