This week's CW cover story, Prophet Motive/Undocumented in Utah, focuses on undocumented immigration. Among those I interviewed for the story were immigration attorney James Alcala whom the feds indicted back in June, 2009 for allegedly, with a number of conspirators, supplying thousands of fake visas for undocumented Hispanics to work in Utah.---

Alcala's immigration law firm's offices are in Glendale. They're a former Italian restaurant that now resemble, in part thanks to the Amercian and Mexican flags flying high over the squat, orange building, an embassy. Chiseled into the red rock under the firms' name are the words "Trabajo y libertad." That translates as work and freedom, somewhat ironic given that many people who allegedly came to Alcala for work visas now face deportation.

The 41 year old lawyer argues there's a difference between Anglo immigration attorneys and those, like him, who are of Hispanic or other descent, such as Nigerian-born Hakeem Ishola or Uruguayan-born Leonor Perretta, both highly respected immigration lawyers. Those of foreign descent feel the issue more personally, Alcala seems to be saying. Most of his family, he says, were illegal aliens. "We were fearful of immigration." Even now, when he hears the word immigration, "it can make the hair stand on the back of my head."

He says one of the mistakes he made was not paying enough respect to his fellow immigration attorneys. He suspects some "of a little bit of jealousy" of his success. On a good year he can get 1,000 clients. His staff has been cut in half to six -- a number of undocumented employees left after the feds raided the offices--but there's more than enough work to keep them busy.

The Mexican community, he says, knows he's a trustworthy person. There's a saying, he claims: "Alcala es mi gallito." It translates to Alcala is my cock, fighting my corner in 'el rino de gallo.' He says allegations from immigration lawyers that he takes on cases he knows he can't win for the money are not true. If the allegations that he was "money-hungry" were true, he asks, why do people keep coming to him for help?

The answer to that questions, his critics argue, is simply that many clients are desperate enough to clutch at any straw when they are drowning.