Immigrant Rights Passion for Petty

A lot of Roy Petty’s business comes from “other people being crooks.”

Petty, one of the only immigration lawyers in Northwest Arkansas, spends about half of his time trying to keep immigrants from being deported, but he said only about 10 percent of those cases are winnable.

The main problem, he said, is that a couple of notaries public in the area mislead immigrants by overcharging them and filing paperwork that they know will result in the immigrants being deported.

“Notarios” have more power in Mexico and other countries, so the immigrants often think everything is taken care of after they see — and pay — a notary public in the United States. In this country, a notary public is legally empowered to witness and certify the validity of documents and take affidavits and depositions. And, Petty said, it’s easy for anyone to become a notary here.

“I’m talking about hundreds and hundreds of families whose lives are destroyed because someone filed the wrong forms for them and they got deported,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking. So many people take advantage of immigrants because our laws are so complicated and bewildering.”

Civil Rights

Petty grew up in Chicago and lived there for 25 years. He was director of the Midwest Immigrant Rights Center in Chicago for seven years and worked for the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights for another seven years. He spent one year in Washington, D.C., serving as executive director of the American Immigration Law Foundation.

In 1999, Petty moved to Northwest Arkansas, where his parents had retired. He opened Law Offices of Roy Petty that year in Rogers. He has another lawyer in that office, Arminda Ferguson, and one in a satellite office that opened in November in Dardanelle. Her name is Mariana Collins-Romero.

All his employees, five full-time and one part-time, speak Spanish. “I can do OK,” Petty said, referring to his bilingual abilities.

Petty is still licensed in Illinois but can practice immigration law in any state. Besides deportation defense cases, he also helps immigrants get green cards and legal status. Because of its complexities, immigration law can’t really be practiced on a part-time basis, he said.

“It’s a full-time job for me to keep up with the law,” Petty said. “We do only immigration law. That’s what I’ve been doing for many years. I like it. I don’t want to do anything else.

“The immigration laws are incredibly complicated. They’re also very harsh. You make one mistake, and you can get into big trouble.”

Petty also takes on asylum cases where his client might be imprisoned or worse if deported to their home country.

1987 Amnesty

Petty said many immigrants to Northwest Arkansas became residents through an amnesty program in 1987. That program granted residency to immigrants who had been in the United States for a particular number of years — five years in most cases.

Petty said many Hispanic residents of Northwest Arkansas were refugees who fled during civil wars in El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1980s.

Lawful permanent residents can apply for spouses and unmarried children to come to the United States to live. Immigrants who become citizens can also apply for their parents to come here.

Petty said he doesn’t know how many immigrants in Northwest Arkansas are illegal, but it could be as many as half of them. Petty said it’s “absurdly easy” for them to get fraudulent documents (which cost about $300) to allow them to work here, often in the poultry industry.

“From across the room, I can tell they’re fraudulent,” he said of the documents, “but somehow they get jobs.”

Petty said he does some pro bono work, but “almost everybody pays a fee” based on what they’re able to pay.