A Portland immigration lawyer has been suspended after the state bar said he failed to notify clients of removal orders and other major developments in their cases.
Felix Hagenimana must cease all work on hundreds of immigration cases, according to an emergency order signed on Wednesday by Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy.
Murphy’s order was issued on an emergency basis, following a lengthy petition from the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar.
The bar’s attorneys alleged that Hagenimana failed to file important documents in immigration court, leading to removal orders against several people. They accused Hagenimana of having clients and employees, who are not lawyers, write up their own filings, which he would file without review, and of advising an employee to create filings using generative artificial intelligence.
The attorneys also raised concerns with his billing practices. The bar believes he was working on at least 1,500 cases, charging clients $1,000 to $7,000 per case, according to court records.
The bar’s petition cites accounts from several other immigration lawyers, community members and former clients, who said Hagenimana failed to communicate with clients and ensure that they understood their legal cases. In at least one case the bar identified, a former client said he wasn’t aware that Hagenimana was representing him for at least a year, because he believed he had signed a contract with a lawyer in New Hampshire who Hagenimana worked with.
An immigration judge issued a removal order against that former client, according to the bar, after Hagenimana did not file pleadings requested by the court. Hagenimana later indicated to the bar that he chose not to respond, according to the petition, in an apparent effort to get the immigration judge to close the removal proceedings.
Neither Hagenimana nor the other attorney from that case, Donald Lader, responded to requests for comment on Tuesday. Lader is principal owner of Asylum Services, LLC, which the bar said worked frequently with Hagenimana’s law firm and is based in Bath.
“Hagenimana has a high volume of vulnerable immigration clients who have critical, time sensitive litigation matters,” bar attorneys wrote in the petition. “Hagenimana’s conduct created both a substantial risk of harm, and actual harm, to his clients’ finances, liberty, and ultimately their lives, specifically for those who were later removed from Maine and the United States.”
This story will be updated.