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485 LUXURIOUS ROOMS & SUITES!! Across From Texas Medical Center Convenient to Everything: 5 Min to Domed Stadium & Domed World Rice Stadium Zoo Golf Course Fat Stock Show TIDES II MOTOR INN 6700 South Main, Houston CALL 713-522-2811 DAULAIRE Out of Print First Editions CHILDREN’S BOOKS TEXANA LITERATURE PRINTS & DRAWINGS WESTGATE BUILDING 1122 COLORADO Lavaca Street Entrance Mon-Fn ,’11-3 Austin. Texas 78701 The $10 Program We invite organizations and individuals to sell new one-year Observer subscriptions. For each subscription the selling organization or individual will receive $10 commission. Like most publications, the Observer spends almost that obtaining a new subscription by mail. We prefer, however, that the money go to hard-working groups or individuals instead of to the post office and paper companies. Organizations and individuals authorized to sell subscriptions under the program will be provided with forms and sample copies. The only requirement is that individuals who wish to try this must have their own subscription paid up at the regular $20 rate. Commissions on subscriptions to be billed will be paid on receipt of the bill payment. Neither renewals nor subscriptions for a period shorter than a year receive commissions. If you want to take part in this program, contact the Observer at 600 W. 7th St., Austin, Tx. 78701, or phone 512-477-0746. No PAC’s or campaigns, please. many continue to represent the un documented in legal battles \(generally their financial ability to do so is severely limited. As a result, the only complaint which came to our attention regarding them was that their “free legal services” were no longer available, even though INS continues to distribute forms which list them as such. The group most criticized by those we interviewed was the notary publics and “immigration consultants” who seek out undocumented clients. Peter Schey, a noted legal-aid attorney, summarized the legal authority of the “notario” in a July 1974 article in The National Notary: Notaries, whose lawful authority basically extends to the acknowledgment of signatures and the administration of oaths, have suddenly assumed the role of immigration expert! While the vast majority of Notaries recognize their legal restrictions in im-migration affairs, a growing number are knowingly engaged in illegal and unscrupulous activities. In 1972 a local Hidalgo County “consultant” was ordered by a Texas court to stop representing herself as an attorney and to cease preparing or accumulating documents concerning visa petitions before INS. \(Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee, State Bar of Texas and the Hidalgo County Bar Assocition vs ReNevertheless, most efforts to end such practices have had only minimal effect. The involvement of notarios in immigration law is in part accounted for by the fact that a “notario publico” in Mexico training. Thus, many Mexican immi grants assume that notarios in the U.S. are the equivalent of attorneys. Notarios, who need only minimal literacy skills to qualify as a notary public in the U.S., have sometimes claimed to be able to help the undocumented obtain a visa even when in reality the legal pos sibilities are virtually hopeless. By pre tending extensive legal knowledge and by misrepresenting the possibilities of getting a visa, a notario may end up jeopardizing the chances for legalization of those they claim to represent. Some have reportedly given erroneous or mis leading information about eligibility re quirements. Others reportedly issue worthless documents, representing such as permits to live in the U.S. Some of our respondents also told us of notarios who failed to even file applications from clients who then waited for years without realizing that no papers had been filed. In the Lower Rio Grande Valley where we did much of our initial re search, approximately four dozen notarios are involved in doing immigration work. INS officials told us of two former INS officials who called themselves “immigration consultants,” much to the dismay of their former colleague While some legislation has been enacted \(like laws which prevent notaries from using the term “notario accomplished to effectively limit their questionable immigration visa business. To many of the unsophisticated immigrants who cannot afford an attorney, notarios continue to represent a ray of hope, however false, of eventual legalization. The legalization channel, like the Rio Grande in former times, is constantly changing courses. The bureaucratic and legalistic changes, however, seldom benefit undocumented immigrants. At every turn there are “guides” who stand ready to exploit their powerlessness. Few of them make it successfully to the end of the process with a visa in hand. Getting caught up in this system can be far more threatening than swimming the river on a moonlit night. Chad Richardson, who received his doctorate in sociology at UT-Austin, is assistant professor of sociology at Pan American University in Edinburg. Joe Feagin is professor of sociology at UT-Austin and author of Ghetto Revolts Discrimination American Style NUCLEAR ARMS CONTROL HOTLINE information on arms control and military budget legislation, and what you can do about it. Updated weekly. 100 Maryland Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 Council for a Livable World COMPLETE PERSONAL & BUSINESS INSURANCE ALICE ANDERSON AGENCY 808-A E. 46th, Austin, Texas 459-6577 Life Insurance and Annuities Martin Elfant, CLU 4223 Richmond, Suite 213, Houston, TX 77027 Suitife THE TEXAS OBSERVER 7