Musings on Immigration

Because of the ICE raids and tight immigration enforcement prevalent in Georgia in the recent months, it is imperative that all persons on visas (or even without them) take care of their criminal history. Were you ever convicted of a criminal offense? Talk to a criminal attorney to see if he can reduce the charge to a lesser offense or even vacate it (this basically means there would be no conviction in the end). Do you think you may have something on your criminal record? Don't wait until ICE is knocking on your door or your visa is revoked, talk to a criminal attorney beforehand so that he can investigate what sort of offenses might be on your record. Some people see themselves in a detention center before they had a chance to hire a criminal attorney to take care of that DUI or battery offense they were charged with decades ago. Nothing on your criminal record ever goes away--even if you pay all your fines or so probation; your criminal history is there for life. We hav...

You should hire an immigration attorney who can actually find out what exactly it is the government (or ICE) is charging you with. This week, we had a client detained at his own house, before dawn, after ICE agents knocked on his door, and transferred him to Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, GA (2.5 hours south of Atlanta). Our client’s wife promptly came to our office and hired us so we could investigate what charges the government was bringing against the client and to get a bond for him. ICE initially told us and our client’s wife that the client had an aggravated felony, which for the purposes of simplicity, is something really really bad (examples of aggravated felonies are child abuse and pornography, burglary, firearms offenses, drug trafficking, etc.).  Two days after we were notified of this, now ICE was claiming our client had a conviction for DUI from 1997 and that’s I why he was being detained. By this time, our client’s wife had already secured a certified disp...

The Supreme Court yesterday issued what can only be considered a seminal decision as it applies to the constitutional rights of all immigrants. In Padilla v. Kentucky, the court expressed, at least in summary, its dismay at the increasing difficulties caused by today’s immigration laws. Over the 21 years of my practice, I have had literally hundreds of clients who were improperly informed or not informed at all, of the negative immigration consequences of their “plea.” It is, frankly, about time that the failure of the criminal defense bar to adequately inform their clients becomes a reason to have these convictions overturned. I foresee an enormous surge in Motions to Reopen removal proceedings based upon the Supreme Courts decision. Some may not agree (certainly ICE won’t), and while not mentioned by name, Padilla v. Kentucky also in my view sets aside the BIA’s decision in Matter of Pickering, whch itself was severely limited in Matter of Cota-Vargas , where the BIA recognized the ...