The San Francisco Superior Court sided with San Francisco’s city attorney last week, charging predatory immigration consultant Leonard Lacayo more than $600,000 in civil penalties and lawyer’s fees.
Lacayo and his associates have allegedly posed as immigration lawyers at their Mission District office for years, charging vulnerable immigrants thousands of dollars for fraudulent legal advice.
“The 8 year long campaign of weaponization by the ultra corrupt SF City Attorney’s office is pure unadulterated garbage,” said Lacayo in a statement to Mission Local. Lacayo then said, “tell the real story, or be part of a lynching party organized by the corrupt disgraceful criminals related to the very same scum that crucified Our Lord.”
In 2017, the city attorney’s office sought an injunction against Lacayo’s firm, which advertises itself as a tax preparation service and, five years later, filed a motion to enforce it when Lacayo continued to offer legal services without a license.
Now, facing steep penalties and another five-year extension of the city attorney’s original injunction, Lacayo may finally be stopped.
“Leonard Lacayo has demonstrated zero regard for the law or the immigrant communities he claims to serve,” said City Attorney David Chiu. “For years, he has targeted vulnerable immigrants, taking their money while putting them in legal jeopardy. His actions are particularly egregious during a time of mass deportations and heightened fear in our immigrant communities.”
Milli Atkinson, the Immigrant legal defense program director of the Justice and Diversity Center of the Bar Association of San Francisco, says that false legal advice can lead to “devastating” consequences for immigrants. It leaves them vulnerable to deportation as well as civil or legal penalties if they file the wrong documents.
More than 100 immigrants have been arrested outside San Francisco courts since President Trump began his crackdown on immigrant enforcement when he took office in January.
Often, those appearing in court without a lawyer are the first to be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As a result, asylum-seekers scramble to obtain legal advice and representation.
When Mission Local visited Lacayo’s office in 2016, just one month before the first inauguration of President Donald Trump, “Make America Great Again” banners lined his walls, and his jacket was emblazoned with an American flag. A framed photo on his desk showed a younger Lacayo grinning as Rudy Giuliani, a former member of Trump’s legal team, signed a posterboard.
At the time, Lacayo dismissed the city attorney’s first lawsuit against him as a personal attack aimed at his support for Trump.
The court order requires Lacayo to provide contact information for all recent clients who have received immigration-related services from Lacayo and Associates. The city will also have access to all of Lacayo’s business transaction records.
“Defendant’s conduct is egregious and ongoing and more restrained corrective actions have not been effective,” reads the court order.
Amazed this guy isn’t in jail…
Ugh this guy. Why is his storefront still open?
“…the corrupt disgraceful criminals related to the very same scum that crucified Our Lord” sounds like some not-so-subtle code for “The Jews”!
Most people who would reference that know Jesus was crucified by the Romans…
So are you saying the “Jews killed Jesus” trope is not a known antisemitic incitement going back hundreds of years???? Wtf???? Please clarify just what you mean here! Excuse me for not cutting you a break but this is really not a good look…???
It’s deliberate that I referenced the fact that Romans were the ones that crucified Jesus Christ.
Whatever you decide as far as demonizing someone for saying that, that’s on you.
You are being obtuse! My point is that flagrantly throwing around antisemitic hate speech is bad (that’s Leonard). And that people who hem and haw about how a hate speech against group x is no big deal because said hate speech is inaccurate really should know better (that seems to be you).
Unless you are trying to say something else? This is your chance to not look like the person running interference for the forces of bigotry.
To your point, I don’t think I am demonizing anyone, rather I am proudly calling out bigotry when I see it and inviting you to join me in doing so.
And while you’re at it yank, this jerk’s notary license! What’s so sad is that in many Latin American countries, notaries are lawyers, so it’s confusing to them, and people like this creep take advantage of that.
How do these people get this far along for years and years and nothing happens?
Ask: City Atty Chiu, appointed by London Breed.
Use that 600k to support legal fees for asylum seekers. There is so much need for immigrants to have legal representation, and the no cost/low-cost legal organizations are overwhelmed with the demand.