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Here’s an example of someone who could be taking advantage of a situation:
Lake County Black Lives Matter movement is trying to be more inclusive by reaching out to other minority groups, mirroring what is happening across the country.
Black Lives Matter supporters and associated organizations are enlisting Asians, Hispanics and other minorities into the movement and casting light on connections among different minority groups.
In Lake County, that's meant reaching out to activists of other ethnicities, such as Margaret Carrasco, said Lake County Black Lives Matter chairman Clyde McLemore, whose activism focuses on policing issues, but also economics and education.
"What I really like is, that I'm seeing more of a direction that all lives matter," Carrasco said. "I think that's the way to go. Any kind of violence, any kind of killings, it's irrelevant the race of that person, the color of their skin."
In all honesty, I like her statement in the last paragraph there, but rewind to 2011:
Scam artists prey on immigrants
After spending 12 days in an immigration detention center, Mario De la Rosa received welcomed news about his pending deportation case.
Within three days of his release, Margaret Carrasco, who De la Rosa said introduced herself as an immigration attorney, went to the family’s house to talk about the case. Carrasco promised not only to cancel his deportation but also to help the entire family to obtain legal residency.
Carrasco said she would initially charge $500.
“She gave me faith and made me feel secure about the future,” De la Rosa’s partner, Clara, said in Spanish. “I saw her like an angel.”
On March 26, Carrasco represented De la Rosa in his first immigration court hearing. She later filled out a political asylum application and gave it to De la Rosa, telling him to hand-deliver it to the judge at his second hearing.
Carrasco failed to attend the May 6 hearing, saying she was sick. As instructed, De la Rosa handed in the application, but the judge summarily denied it for having no basis for political asylum.
The judge told De la Rosa that Carrasco wasn’t a lawyer and advised him to go to the National Immigrant Justice Center for proper representation.
“I felt really bad. I was frustrated. How is it possible that she deceived us like this?” De la Rosa said. “We left court thinking, ‘What are we going to do? I don’t have the money to pay someone else, and what if they do the same thing to us?’”
Today, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office file a lawsuit against Carrasco alleging that she posed “as a licensed attorney” and “cheated immigrants out of their upfront payments and put them at risk for deportation.”
It gets better:
for her part, Carrasco denies all the allegations against her. She says she only identifies herself as a legal representative. “I present myself as Margaret Carrasco; never do I say that I am licensed,” she said. “I make it very, very clear.”
But Carrasco’s business card could be confusing and misleading to immigrants. It has a Loyola Law School logo on the upper left-hand side, and underneath her name it reads, “Graduate of Loyola Law School Jurisprudence 2003.” It also mentions the Chicago Bar Association and the American Immigration Lawyers Association and advises in Spanish, “Don’t sign anything” to anyone arrested or under deportation.
The Loyola Office of Registrar confirmed that Carasco graduated in 2003, but she is not a current member of either the Chicago Bar Association or the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
She is not licensed to practice law in Illinois, according to Jim Grogan, deputy administrator and chief counsel for the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Illinois Supreme Court.
And also:
Two years earlier, an immigration attorney also filed a complaint with the Consumer Fraud Division against Carrasco noting that she was an unauthorized practitioner of law and potentially committing fraud in and around Waukegan.
“Carrasco is performing an unauthorized practice of law and ultimately committing fraud by taking advantage of a disenfranchised segment of society,” wrote the attorney, whose name was redacted from the complaint.
Finally:
Activist Margaret Carrasco has withdrawn from the Waukegan District 60 school board race to avoid being kicked off the ballot for both races she filed for.
Carrasco remains a candidate for 3rd Ward alderman, a race in which she’s challenging a fellow Democrat, incumbent Greg Moisio.
The Illinois Attorney General issued a formal opinion in 1985 that the same person cannot serve on both a city council and school board.
A spokesman for the Illinois Board of Elections said a candidate who files for two offices that cannot be held at the same time has a limited amount of time to pick which office to run for.
The deadline to withdraw and not appear on the ballot was Wednesday, according to Lake County Clerk’s Office. Carrasco was the only school board candidate in Lake County to pull their name.
Carrasco said she decided to run for both, not because she thought she would win both seats, but to spread her message and raise awareness about her concerns.
To the real protestors that are exercising their rights in order to work towards the change they want, be careful who you pal up with. Some MIGHT be just trying to propel themselves....
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