Lawsuit: Bond company charged ‘outrageous' rates to families of immigrant detainees

One of the nation's largest bail bonding companies routinely overcharged immigrants seeking release from federal detention centers, according to a lawsuit filed in Houston last month.

Houston-based AAA Bonding Agency required payments up to 30 percent higher than the standard rate the company had on file with state regulators, said J. Benjamin King, a Dallas-based lawyer representing two of the businesses' former clients.

"The vast majority of these bond companies' customers have little money, little education, weak English-language skills, no way to know that they're being taken advantage of, and no way to fight back, even if they did know," he said. "They are amongst the most defenseless people in our society."

Neither the company's attorney, Jesus Garcia Jr., nor its registered owner, Alberto "Sonny" de Lachica, of El Paso, returned calls for comment this week.

Each year federal authorities send thousands of men and women slated for possible deportation to civil detention centers such as the ones in Port Isabel and Los Fresnos.

Most are released while removal proceedings against them are pending by paying a bond directly to the government or contracting with a bonding company to pay a portion of that fee.

Since its incorporation in 2000, AAA has emerged as a leader in the industry. Backed by Missouri-based Safety National Casualty Corp. - an insurance company also named as a defendant in the suit - AAA issues hundreds of immigration bonds a year.

All of the agency's clients agree to pay between 40 and 50 percent of the bond assessed as a nonrefundable fee, according to the company's standard contract. Should the detained immigrant fail to appear in court, the company requires clients pay the full amount of the bond less any collateral on deposit.

But Safety National is only authorized to charge up to 20 percent of the total bond, according to filings with the Texas Department of Insurance.

Many of AAA's clients signed a separate form allowing the company to exceed its listed rate, but the business failed to submit the documents to the insurance department as required by law.

The company still violated state insurance regulations, regardless of whether the family members of detained immigrants agreed to the terms, said King, the plaintiffs' attorney.

"Even had the defendants filed (the forms), the Texas DOI would never have approved so great a deviation from the approved rate," he says in the suit.

Several local bail bondsmen said the 40to 50 percent rate sounded high but cautioned that immigration bonds carry far greater risk for bondsmen than the standard bail bond used to secure release on a criminal violation.

Those facing possible deportation are more likely to flee and rules governing the forfeiture of bonds differ in immigration and criminal courts, said Dick Dickinson, who worked in the immigration bonding industry years ago but left in part because of the hazards involved.

The plaintiffs in the case against AAA and Safety National are seeking class-action status for the case. An initial hearing is scheduled for September.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.