Illegal Alien Lawyer Fools Feds

The Justice Department has issued a laughable punishment to an illegal immigrant who fraudulently practiced immigration law in the U.S. for more than a decade, repeatedly deceiving the federal government, numerous judges and clients that paid for his representation. 

The illegal alien from India (Ravi Kanwal) lied to obtain a law license that allowed him to regularly appear in federal court since 1995 and worked closely with U.S. immigration authorities yet the feds had no clue he was in the country illegally. Kanwal promotes his Denver law practice on a web site that describes it as a full service immigration firm concentrating on obtaining lawful status in the United States. He also boasts about having uncommon success in solving immigration problems and gaining access to the United States for his clients.

When the immigration attorney’s fraud was recently discovered, the Justice Department simply suspended him from practicing before immigration tribunals for two years. The authority that disciplines Colorado attorneys suspended Kanwal for a year for failing to disclose his legal status to his clients, immigration courts and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 

The state’s mere slap on the wrist is hardly surprising, but the federal government should certainly have issued a more substantial penalty considering the repeat violator made a mockery of the federal court system as well as immigration authorities. This man should never practice law in the U.S. again and should certainly be deported.

The division of the Justice Department that disciplined Kanwal, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, explains that he was suspended for engaging in unethical and unprofessional conduct, working without authorization as an attorney in Colorado, failing to comply with the conditions of his non-immigrant visitor visa for business and remaining in the United States illegally since 1995.