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FLORIDA BAR INVESTIGATES CLAIMS OF IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY MISCONDUCT
The Florida Bar Association has received a number of complaints about immigration attorneys taking money from immigrants in exchange for registering them for an amnesty program that does not exist.  Most of the complaints have centered on the Temporary Protected Status program for Nicaraguans and Hondurans in the US at the time of Hurricane Mitch.  TPS allows a person to register for protection from removal.  However, when the period of TPS ends, the person becomes deportable if they have no other legal status in the US.  
Many of those eligible for the Hurricane Mitch TPS are Nicaraguans, and unlike Hondurans, they are eligible for immigration relief under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act.  The disparate treatment of Nicaraguans and Hondurans under NACARA has been widely criticized, and many laws have been proposed that would make Hondurans eligible for the same benefits.  However, none of these proposals have been made law. 
It seems that some lawyers are telling people that TPS is a general amnesty.  The Florida Bar is investigating two complaints made against a Miami attorney.  Details of the complaints against him will not be made public unless the Bar determines that there is sufficient evidence to proceed with a formal ethics review.  
 
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