A bill that would have eliminated Immigration Consultants in California failed last week in an 11th hour vote in the state Senate. As a result, hundreds of minority- and women-owned businesses were preserved and immigrants will continue to have access to low-cost, non-legal immigration document services in the Golden State.
Many small businesses offer honest and ethical immigration consulting services, so the defeat of California AB 638 was welcome news. The Senate voted late last Thursday with 13 “yes” votes, 17 “no” votes and the remaining 10 senators abstaining. The bill needed 21 “yes” votes to pass.
“Since the mid-1980s, registered and bonded immigration consultants have served hundreds of thousands of immigrants wanting to make California their home,” said Bill Anderson, the NNA’s VP of Government Affairs. “We’re grateful that the value of the immigration consultant profession was reaffirmed by the Senate in the defeat of this legislation.”
The bill’s author, Assemblywomen Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, had sought to reduce immigration fraud often perpetrated by con-artists masquerading as “notarios publicos.” But the measure would have done little to stop the unlawful providers and, instead, would have put nearly 1,000 bonded and registered Immigration Consultants out of business, along with their employees.