In November, the Oakland City Attorney won a record $15.1 million judgment against an immigration consulting business that preyed on and defrauded Oakland families who sought legal residency in the U.S.

This is the largest award that the City Attorney's Office has secured in litigation, and it likely is the largest judgment under California's Immigration Consultants Act.

The defendant in our lawsuit, American Legal Services (ALS), had three fraudulent immigration consulting offices in Oakland.

ALS advertised itself as a legal service helping people navigate complex immigration law. However, none of its employees were attorneys. In fact, they were scam artists who repeatedly defrauded families by making false promises of citizenship and charging exorbitant fees up front, sometimes the life savings of their victims. The company then routinely acted against the interests of those who sought help and botched immigration applications, in some cases resulting in deportation proceedings.

This was a morally bankrupt enterprise that preyed upon some of the most vulnerable members of our community. This verdict sends a clear message to any other criminal enterprises that are defrauding immigrant families in Oakland: We will track you down, shut you down and recover the money you stole.

To date the City Attorney's Office has collected about $200,000 from insurance company defendants. All of that money has been paid to the 18 families identified as victims of ALS in the City's lawsuit. Each of the victim families will recover the money they paid to ALS, plus an additional payment of about $7,600. Victims of the business included individuals of Mexican, Cuban, Middle Eastern and Sudanese descent.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Colwell's judgment also imposes a permanent injunction barring the ALS and its members from operating as immigration consultants.

I am very proud of and wish to recognize the Neighborhood Law Corps attorneys for the superb work they did on this case.  The Neighborhood Law Corps unit in my office consists of newly minted attorneys who focus on protecting our community from this type of outrageous conduct and other egregious behavior that harms our residents and taxpayers and damages the quality of life in our community. 

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Youth UpRising Gun Buy Back
December 14 event at Youth UpRising launches statewide mission to remove unwanted & illegal guns from communities

On Saturday, December 14, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Youth UpRising will host a gun buy back event with the Oakland Police Department and the organization Gun by Gun, which empowers people to remove guns from their communities through crowd funded buy back programs. This is the first gun buy back event that is coordinated statewide.   

By any standard, we have a public safety crisis in our nation and in Oakland. Youth UpRising is a one-stop health and human services center next to Castlemont High that is designed by and for youth. Youth UpRising's mission is to transform East Oakland into a healthy and economically robust community by developing the leadership of youth and young adults and improving the systems that impact them. One out of every five homicides in Oakland occurs within a mile of its doors.

As a result of gun buy backs in 2012, Youth UpRising managed to take more than 600 unwanted or illegal guns out of the community. To continue this important work, Gun by Gun and Youth UpRising have launched a crowd funding campaign. Every $100 raised = one less gun on the streets of Oakland.

Because of limited funds, the program cannot accept broken or non-working guns. Only functioning guns that pose a hazard will be accepted.

I am pleased to be a sponsor for the buy back. I am donating $500 from my Office Holder account to support this effort. I encourage you and your friends and family members to check out the below link to Gun by Gun for more information about this worthy event. I also want to applaud Olis Simmons, founder and CEO of Youth Uprising and Ian Johnstone, founder of Gun by Gun, for their vision and for taking the reins to make our community safer.

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1. City Council declares November 22, 2013 Black Adoption Placement and Research Center (BAPRC) day and honors BAPRC for 30 years of service in the Bay Area

On November 19, the Oakland City Council adopted a resolution commemorating National Adoption Awareness Month and saluting the Black Adoption Placement and Research Center (BAPRC), a licensed adoption and foster family agency that has been dedicated to finding permanent loving families for African American and other waiting children for three decades.

Founded in 1983, BAPRC has placed more than 1,500 children in permanent, loving homes. In California, the majority of waiting children are of African American descent and are living in the foster care system. 

BAPRC is addressing the continuing crisis in America: the hundreds of thousands of children who are without permanent homes in California alone. The number of children who are in need of permanent homes continues to grow at an alarming rate. These children will realize their great potential and make important contributions to help shape the future of our nation and our world, especially if they have stable, nurturing families.

I am proud to serve  as BAPRC's Board President, and I want to thank our Executive Director Gloria King for leading the agency's mission for 23 years.

Oakland City Council honors Black Adoption Placement & Research Center

2. Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce 10th Anniversary Celebration

The Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce (OAACC) has been a valuable resource and advocate for local businesses and entrepreneurs for a decade. OAACC's 10th Anniversary Luncheon on November 13^th as always was an uplifting and extraordinary event, especially the keynote address by NAACP President Benjamin Jealous. Congratulations to the OAACC for the important work it has done for the past 10 years for Oakland residents and businesses and for its unwavering commitment to enhancing opportunities  and promoting prosperity for African American businesses in our community.

3. Barbara Lee and Elihu Harris Lecture Series Featuring "Daughters of the Civil Rights Movement"

The "Daughters of the Civil Rights Movement Speak" lecture, co-sponsored by former Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris and Congresswoman Barbara Lee and produced by the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center, was a history lesson and an intimate portrait of four women who grew up during the civil rights movement, daughters of key figures in in the civil rights movement. This was one of the most riveting and moving experiences of my life. There was not a dry eye in the house. 

More than 1,000 people attended the lecture on November 9 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.

The speakers were Donzaleigh Abernathy, daughter of civil rights luminaries Reverend Ralph and Juanita Abernathy; Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of President Lyndon Johnson; Kerry Kennedy, daughter of U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy; and Peggy Wallace Kennedy, daughter of Alabama governors George and Lurlene Wallace. In 1963, incoming Governor George Wallace vowed "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

Photo from left to right: Moderator Belva Davis, Congresswoman Lee, Kerry Kennedy, Peggy Wallace Kennedy, Luci Baines Johnson and Donzaleigh Abernathy.

They recounted their experiences bringing to life a horrifying period in our nation's recent history and the civil rights movement's triumphant transformation of our nation as a result of the courage and sacrifices of sung and unsung heroes and heroines.

They also reminded us that the fight is unfinished. As Kerry Kennedy said, today in many cases "we've replaced outright discrimination with unspoken structural discrimination."

Ms. Abernathy described the bombing of her home by hate-filled opponents of equal rights and justice for African Americans, and Peggy Wallace Kennedy told us how she lived in the shadow of her father's infamous stand against civil rights in the university doorway until she was in her sixties and decided to speak out for justice and equality and publicly acknowledge that her father was wrong. 

Ms. Wallace Kennedy aptly stated: for too many Americans today, the schoolhouse doors remain closed. Fifty years after the March on Washington, equality in our education and justice systems still eludes us. We still do not live in a country that makes equal opportunities available to all young people... far from it.

This lecture was an eloquent reminder that we must continue the struggle to perfect our nation and that we have the power to do so.

I want to express my gratitude to  the Honorable Barbara Lee and former Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris for sponsoring this inspiring lecture.

4. Charles Houston Bar Association (CHBA) 2013 Gala

The CHBA 2013 Gala on December 7 was an elegant and wonderful evening, one of those golden moments -- good food, excellent program, a live band and room filled with gorgeously attired folks and warmth.

Benjamin Crump, the attorney for the family of Trayvon Martin, spoke from his heart about Trayvon's senseless murder, his work to secure justice for Trayvon's family and his astonishment that George Zimmerman was not arrested within a few days. He challenged us all to stand up for all of our children.