When Juan Antonio Sigala was arrested in Puerto Rico by U.S. immigration agents in 1998 and faced deportation, he knew whom to call for help: South Pasadena attorney Enrique Arevalo.
Sigala, who had gone to San Juan for an AIDS conference, knew of Arevalo from listening to the lawyer's Spanish-language radio show in Los Angeles that focuses on immigration law.
"I didn't have much faith in lawyers," said Sigala, 37, a Mexican immigrant who was working for an HIV-prevention organization at the time. "But after listening to his show, I thought I should try."
With Arevalo's help, Sigala was granted political asylum -- arguing that he faced persecution in his home state of Jalisco because he was openly gay. Now he hopes to become a permanent U.S. resident.
For many Mexican and Central American immigrants living in California, Spanish-language radio and television are their primary sources of information on immigration law.
They often cannot afford legal counsel, so they rely on the attorneys who appear on morning talk shows and evening newscasts to answer questions and alleviate their fears. Can la migra pick me up as I walk my children to school? Can I apply for a green card if I am a farmworker? Can I get a driver's license even though I don't have my papers?
These days, topics include President Bush's proposal for a guest-worker program, a police officer's inquiries about a person's residency status, and citizen border patrols planned in California.
"The area of immigration law is constantly changing," Arevalo said. "It's one area of the law that lends itself to the political shenanigans of Washington."
As the national debate over illegal immigration heats up and reform advocates become increasingly active, such information sources are even more crucial for California's large immigrant community, said David Ayon, a senior research associate at Loyola Marymount University's Center for the Study of Los Angeles.
"The anxiety level is definitely rising," Ayon said. "So the need for or the appeal of this sort of programming is rising along with that."
In fact, such legal affairs programming has become one way that Spanish-language stations are competing for audiences, Ayon said. The stations legitimize themselves by providing something useful to their viewers.
"They offer information," he said. "It's not unlike the way mainstream news competes offering weather and traffic."
But relying solely on the advice of media attorneys can be risky, said Angela Sanbrano, executive director of the Central American Resource Center. She urges immigrants to follow up by hiring their own lawyers or checking with community-based organizations that offer free legal representation.
"Every person has a very unique situation," Sanbrano said. "You cannot generalize from the advice that is given by an attorney on a news program."
Some immigration reform activists say putting lawyers on television only teaches people how to beat the system. That in turn encourages more immigrants to cross the border illegally, said Barbara Coe, head of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform.
"It's quite obvious that this is another effort to try to get around our immigration laws," Coe said.
At KTNQ-AM (1020), the vast majority of listeners are Mexican, many of whom have recently arrived in the U.S., program director Santiago Nieto said.
"Immigration is a very hot topic," Nieto said. "We constantly try to keep people updated."
Indeed, Arevalo has become something of a celebrity in the working-class immigrant community. People often recognize him on the street, thanking him or peppering him with questions about how they can bring their parents or siblings to the United States.
Last week, Arevalo was on his way to Immigration Court at the federal detention facility in San Pedro when a truck driver yelled his name.
"Once you start doing radio and television, like a DJ, you become a celebrity," Nieto said. "Automatically, you are recognized wherever you go, wherever you are."
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Arevalo, who came to the U.S. as a teenager, first appeared on Spanish-language radio in 1986. Now he presides over several Los Angeles television and radio shows, including a weekly call-in program, "La Ley de Imigracion." During the two-hour show, Arevalo and fellow attorneys talk about recent court cases, legislation and news articles related to immigration.
Arevalo said he felt an obligation to provide an alternate view to "anti-immigrant rhetoric" and to dispel rumors spreading among recent immigrants.
"It's an easy way to have a window with the public and use my experience of 21 years as an immigration attorney to inform the public about immigration law," he said.
