Eddi Bueno-Cabrera was not, and is not, a real attorney, Gwinnett County police say.
Nevertheless, the native Dominican set up shop at flea market late last year and, using multiple aliases, began offering legal services.
He told one man he’d help his family get to the States legally and collected $6,000. He agreed to help a handful of foreign workers get legal status and collected $20,000. He promised someone else he’d assist with the immigration process and collected $10,000 more.
But he never helped anyone, police say. And he eventually disappeared.
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Bueno-Cabrera is still on the lam today — and he was not alone in allegedly taking advantage of vulnerable immigrants looking for help.
The unlicensed practice of law is a long-held but growing concern in immigration populations across the United States, and especially in places like Gwinnett County, where a significant chunk of the population is foreign-born. And while the number of prosecutions, or even police reports, are often small in cases like the one involving Bueno-Cabrera, officials and advocates believe it’s happening more often.
The ramifications can be devastating.
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