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...

A person who is detained at an immigration detention center can ask for a bond hearing to see if the judge will agree to release him on bond. The detainee can represent himself or he can choose to be represented by an attorney. On the opposite side, we have the government attorney (or ICE attorney) who is typically fighting to deport a detainee. A bond hearing is conducted to present to the judge arguments in favor and against the release of this detainee. Generally, you only get one bond hearing , so you have one chance to present the best arguments, evidence, and witnesses to help your case. You should not take a bond hearing lightly. Although this is not a formal immigration hearing, what you do—or not do—at a bond hearing can determine what remaining time you will have in the U.S., how quickly your case will be processed (detained cases are processed quicker), and where your case will be heard (for example, the court immigration in Stewart/Lumpkin, Georgia will typically hea...

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...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency in charge of enforcing our country’s immigration laws, just launched a series of raids in North Carolina, Texas, and Georgia, to deport people (including young children and mothers) who, among other things, entered as undocumented after Jan. 1, 2014, or were ordered removed after Jan. 1, 2014. We have heard (from clients and friends) that young children and mothers are being places in custody and are being pushed to be removed quickly. Many—if not most—of these people are immigrants from Central America who fled their countries starting 2014 because of the violence caused by drugs,  gangs like the MS-13, and the inability of local police to stop these increasing threats. These immigrants fled to the United States, not because they are criminals, but because they have become refugees fleeing their war-torn countries where they sincerely fear they will be killed. The ICE raids that have just started this past weekend will...

written by Associate Attorney Rocky Rawcliffe If you’ve watched television news lately you’ve definitely seen the talking heads debate the virtues and evils of the free market. In the interest of full disclosure I’m all for the free market, but what about goods and services where the state is the only consumer. Is the free market capable of fulfilling the needs of the state without a race to the bottom?  I say NO! Continue reading to find out why. One of the services of which the state is the only consumer is the detention of those who have been found to be in violation of federal immigration laws. Violations of these arcane laws are administrative, not criminal, and subject the violators to administrative detention. As federal immigration enforcement has increased over the last several years, so has the requirement for administrative detention space. Filling this requirement for more administrative detention space are companies like Corrections Corporation of...