Ellison announces settlement between asylum-seekers, law firm

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced a settlement Tuesday that mandates refunds to dozens of asylum-seekers, many of them Somali or Ethiopian, who had retained the legal services of Minneapolis immigration law firm DPB Legal.

Ellison’s office found that DPB Legal accepted 100 clients — between 2021 and 2023 — seeking asylum in order to avoid deportation, but that the firm gave them inaccurate information regarding when they would be eligible to receive a work permit.

Immigrants are eligible to apply for employment authorization 150 days after filing an asylum petition, but the Attorney General’s Office determined that the Minneapolis law firm told its clients that the 150-day timeline would start after filing only the first three pages of the 12-page form. When clients learned that the information was incorrect, many terminated the firm as their legal representative but did not receive a refund of their retainer payments.

“They then had to start their asylum process over again with a new lawyer which caused strain, lost time, missed work opportunities, and additional expense,” said Ellison in a statement.

Ramsey County Judge Leonardo Castro approved an order requiring DPB Legal to stop and refrain from making misstatements to asylum clients and prospective asylum clients, as well as to provide refunds to former and current clients totaling about $100,000.

“I am pleased that DPB Legal has now agreed to refund clients who were misinformed about the asylum process,” said Ellison in a statement. “Everyone makes mistakes, but it’s what we do in those moments of recognizing our errors that matters the most. We appreciate Mr. Brown’s cooperation.”

Attorney Daniel Patrick Brown, who runs DPB Legal, could not be reached for comment.