Panorama City Immigration Office Charged

The city of Los Angeles has filed criminal charges against a San Fernando Valley woman and her Panorama City immigration consulting business. Gloria Dora Saucedo, 65, along with her company Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional Inc. have been charged with practicing law without a license and failing to comply with the Immigration Consultants Act. Two of her business associates, Maria Chavez, 33, and Carmen Onchi, 27, were also charged with practicing law without a license. The legal filing cites two separate occasions when Hermandad allegedly accepted thousands of dollars to provide immigration services to its clients and either didn’t do anything or did very little, resulting in the failure of one client to receive a visa and permanent residency denial in the other instance. Furthermore, investigators conducted three separate undercover investigations of the business, where they allegedly found numerous violations of the Immigration Consultants Act as well as legal advice being provided by unlicensed individuals. If convicted, Saucedo could serve up to five years in jail in addition to $32,000 in fines. Chavez and Onchi could each face up to a year in jail as well as $1,000 in fines. According to the city attorney’s office, the prosecution of Saucedo is part of an ongoing enforcement and education to crack down on immigration scams.