State authorities have started investigating a Norcross-based nonprofit group following complaints that it defrauded its immigrant customers and then threatened to get them deported if they complained, according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
La Casa del Inmigrante is also mentioned in a recent police report about an alleged threat against a local journalist who has been reporting on the complaints. Mundo Hispanico reporter Mario Guevara told police a man called him Friday and said he would kill Guevara’s family, a Gwinnett County police report shows. According to the police report, Guevara said his caller ID indicated “that the number was associated with Casa del Inmigrante.” Mundo Hispanico, like the AJC, is part of Cox Media Group.
In January, the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office concluded in an investigative report that La Casa del Inmigrante was offering immigration-related services without a required state license. A spokesman for the state agency confirmed this week that it is now probing allegations that the nonprofit is offering cosmetology-related services without a state license.
The nonprofit’s CEO — Lourdes Guerra — did not respond to telephone calls for comment. Efforts to reach her by email and through her attorney were also unsuccessful.
But in an interview with Mundo Hispanico, Guerra’s daughter, Nicolle, denied the nonprofit has defrauded customers and threatened them with deportation. The former registered agent for the nonprofit – Chris Taylor — said the group is no longer in business. Taylor also spoke about the alleged threat against the Mundo Hispanico reporter, saying he has never observed Guerra and her family threaten anyone or act violently.
An immigration attorney, Taylor is helping Guerra — a native of Honduras — seek asylum in the U.S. Taylor resigned as the registered agent for her nonprofit in 2012. The following year, he asked the Secretary of State’s Office to investigate the organization’s nonprofit status, citing accusations of “financial irregularities.”
La Casa del Inmigrante was set up to help low-income immigrant families get clothing and food, Taylor said. The group has also offered English language and cosmetology classes as well as help obtaining work permits and temporary reprieves from deportation, state records show.
Those services were the focus of several complaints filed last year with the Georgia Governor’s Office of Consumer Protection. Among other things, the complaints say La Casa del Inmigrante did not have qualified people teaching its English and cosmetology courses. One of the complaints also alleges Guerra refused to give refunds and told customers seeking them that she would call federal immigration authorities and get them “deported immediately.” The nonprofit was also charging people between $350 and $1,000 for immigration-related services, but the work was done incorrectly, state records of the complaints show.
The Office of Consumer Protection forwarded those complaints to the Secretary of State’s Office for investigation under Georgia’s Registration of Immigration Assistance Act. A spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office said his agency took no action against the nonprofit after determining it was no longer offering immigration-related services.
“If they do start that again — any information we receive on it we would investigate and take whatever appropriate action,” said Jared Thomas, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office. “It is something we still have our eye on. That’s for sure.”
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