Immigration officials came for Nancy Landa one night in September of 2009. Landa, who had been Cal State Northridge’s first Latina student body president a few years before, was soon deported to Mexico without her parents.

“I studied hard and tried to contribute positively to my university,” Landa told the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, from Mexico by video. “I worked hard to pay for my education. I made community service a priority as a student.”

But despite Landa’s efforts, her family fell victim to fraudulent immigration services they thought would process her citizenship documents.

Instead of legalization, Landa, and later her brother and parents were forced to leave the United States after living for two decades in Los Angeles.

Landa’s story is one of many experienced by people across the L.A. County who are victimized by fraudulent immigration services, said supervisors Hilda Solis and Sheila Kuehl.

That’s why the supervisors requested Tuesday that a proposed ordinance to stop fraudulent immigration services be drafted and presented to the board to vote on by year’s end. They want an ordinance that ensures all immigration consultants be licensed and that those who give bad advice and charge hefty fees, be penalized.

“Our immigrant families deserve to have their questions answered by legitimate legal service providers without getting scammed,” Solis said in a statement. “This is about making sure we protect those who are most vulnerable and ensure that the legal system works for everybody.”

About 800,000 county residents are eligible for citizenship and more than 50,000 eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, Solis said

The proposed ordinance would strengthen the county’s efforts to enforce a state law that prohibits immigrant consultant fraud. Under the law, immigration consultants can help fill out paperwork, but cannot dispense advice for money. Solis and members of organizations that work with immigrants who spoke out during Tuesday’s meeting said they were especially targeting notarios, a word short for “notario publico,” or notary public. Solis and others said in much of Latin America, notaries are almost equivalent to a lawyer and are authorized to represent others before the government. But in the U.S., a notary’s job is to witness signatures and authenticate documents.

Solis said the ordinance would offer a fresh solution to an age-old problem in which people from China, Mexico, Armenia, and Ethiopia among others living in the county are conned.

“Notarios have been cheating immigrants for far too long,” Solis said. “I believe this motion today will help crack down.”

Supervisor Michael Antonovich agreed, angrily calling those who prey on people who are trying to be citizens “cockroaches.”

The proposal for the ordinance comes a few weeks after Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer announced he had secured convictions against a San Fernando Valley woman for the unlicensed practice of immigration law at Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional on Van Nuys Boulevard. He said Gloria Dora Saucedo and her business, Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional, were performing unauthorized paralegal services. Some clients allege their immigration status was affected, Feuer said in a statement.

Saucedo was sentenced to 2 years of probation and 200 hours of community service. A restitution hearing for several clients is expected to begin on Oct. 7.

The board approved the motion on a 5-0 vote to seek a proposed ordinance. County departments have 90 days to present the draft ordinance to the board for a vote.