Court orders Leonard Lacayo to stop tricking vulnerable immigrants into paying for immigration services he is not legally allowed to provide
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (September 23, 2025) — City Attorney David Chiu announced today that a San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the City in its effort to stop a predatory immigration consulting business from charging vulnerable immigrants for immigration services it was not allowed to provide. The Court found that Leonard Lacayo and Lacayo & Associates violated the 2017 injunction prohibiting them from providing immigration-related services, extended the term of injunction for five years, and ordered them to pay over $600,000 in civil penalties and attorney’s fees.
After Lacayo spent years putting vulnerable immigrants at risk and tricking them into paying for immigration services he was not licensed or qualified to provide, the City secured an injunction in 2017 prohibiting Lacayo and Lacayo & Associates from providing immigration-related legal services. Lacayo violated the injunction, and in 2022, the Court granted the City’s Motion to Enforce the injunction, extending the term of the injunction an additional five years. Lacayo continued to violate the Court’s order, and the City filed another Motion to Enforce in June 2025. Last week, the Court again granted the City’s motion, finding that Lacayo continues to flout the law and unlawfully provide immigration services. The Court ordered Lacayo to pay $503,500 in civil penalties and $110,581 in attorney’s fees.
“Leonard Lacayo has demonstrated zero regard for the law or the immigrant communities he claims to serve,” said City Attorney Chiu. “For years, he has targeted vulnerable immigrants, taking their money while putting them in legal jeopardy. His actions are particularly egregious during a time of mass deportations and heightened fear in our immigrant communities. Immigration services are desperately needed right now, but I want the public to know that Lacayo is not legally allowed to provide immigration services of any kind. We appreciate the Court agreed that Lacayo’s deliberate misconduct must end.”
“In California, notaries public are not lawyers, but some notaries deceive and defraud the public by implying that they can provide advice or services that they cannot legally provide,” said Milli Atkinson, Immigrant Legal Defense Program Director of The Justice & Diversity Center of the Bar Association of San Francisco. “This can lead to devastating implications for immigrants. Immigrants may miss opportunities to obtain legal residency, be unnecessarily deported, or be subjected to civil and/or criminal liability for filing false claims. They may also have to pay exorbitant fees for the services. The State Bar of California and American Bar Association have warned the public about fraud by notaries public. For immigration legal services, it is safer to engage a licensed attorney who is regulated by a State Bar.”
Background
Lacayo & Associates has been operating in San Francisco since 1986. Leonard Lacayo is a notary public, but has never been licensed to practice law nor registered with the state as an immigration consultant. For years, Lacayo had falsely portrayed himself as an attorney and either provided services he was not qualified to provide or simply failed to provide any service at all. Despite being unqualified and unlicensed, Lacayo tricked hundreds of vulnerable people into paying him to handle incredibly complex and high-stakes immigration matters.
In 2017, the City Attorney’s Office secured an injunction that prohibited Leonard Lacayo and Lacayo & Associates from providing any immigration-related services, and Lacayo was ordered to pay restitution and civil penalties.
Nevertheless, Lacayo violated the injunction and continued to provide immigration services. In 2022, the Court granted the City’s Motion to Enforce the injunction, expressly prohibiting Lacayo & Associates from providing any immigration-related services. The order extended the injunction for five years, and the Court imposed a $5,000 penalty on Lacayo.
Despite the 2022 order, the City Attorney’s investigation found that Lacayo continued to meet with clients to offer advice on immigration-related matters and provide immigration services through attorneys and consultants embedded within his office. The City Attorney’s investigation uncovered extensive documentary evidence and witness accounts that Lacayo continued to violate the injunction. Lacayo even received three cease and desist letters from the California State Bar directing him to stop providing legal services.
In June 2025, the City filed another Motion to Enforce the 2017 injunction. On September 19, 2025, the Court granted the City’s motion, prohibiting Leonard Lacayo and Lacayo & Associates from providing any immigration services, regardless of whether Lacayo portrays himself as a lawyer.
The Court’s order states: “Defendant’s conduct is egregious and ongoing and more restrained corrective actions have not been effective. The court imposes civil penalties in the amount of $500 per day between the date of the court’s 2022 enforcement order and the filing of the People’s present motion, for a total of $503,500.”
The order extends the injunction for an additional five years through September 2032, requires Lacayo to provide the City with contact information of all recent clients who received immigration-related services from Lacayo & Associates and its affiliates, and gives the City access to Lacayo’s business transaction records. The Court also ordered Lacayo to pay $110,581 in attorney’s fees to the City Attorney’s Office.
The case is People of the State of California v. Leonard Lacayo, et al., San Francisco Superior Court, Case No. CGC-16-553699. The order can be found here.
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