After being placed in deportation-removal proceedings due to her felony fraud conviction involving a $10,000.00 loss to the government, we were able to overcome the aggravated felony bar to cancellation of removal and win our lawful permanent resident a grant of cancellation of removal.
Our client, a single mother, pleaded guilty to felony larceny for under-reporting her income when renewing her public housing contract. She was ordered to pay $10,000.00 in restitution, and although a lawful permanent resident, she was placed into deportation-removal proceedings for having been convicted of a fraud aggravated felony. Several immigration attorneys advised her she had in fact been convicted of an aggravated felony, and would almost certainly be deported despite having lived in this country in excess of 20 years and despite having minor U.S. citizen children; they turned her away. Her two prior convictions for D.W.I. were more salt in the wound. She was referred to our firm.
A Dollar’s Difference Spares Deportation!
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Winning Aggravated Felony Deportation-Removal Cases
Winston Churchill said we should “Never Surrender”, and he was right.
Too often attorneys see a non-citizen, especially a lawful permanent resident, who is charged with an aggravated felony conviction, and they simply turn the case away because they believe nothing can be done for the person, but that is often just not true. Sure, aggravated felony cases are the hardest to win, but the reality is they can be successfully defended, although we can’t win them all, we have saved many clients with seemingly hopeless deportation-removal cases.
We realize even good people sometimes make serious mistakes. Often they’ve accepted responsibility for what they’ve done. They’ve pled guilty to a felony, served a prison sentence, and in many instances have gone on to change their lives for the better. Then one day there’s a knock at the door, the person is taken into custody by I.C.E. and they face the true terror of deportation proceedings: mandatory detention, immigration court, and the threat of being deported and separated from their home and families. In many cases, the person came to the U.S. as a child. They have had no contact with their native country and have no prospects for employment. They face a life of misery and isolation if deported, and their families in the U.S. will also suffer. That is why it is so important to fight these cases, and to win. Here are some recent examples. Continue reading
Conviction Vacated
Our client, a Salvadoran male, had been living in the U.S. since 1992. In 2001 he qualified for, and received, a grant of Temporary Protected Status (“T.P.S.”). In 2009, he was arrested for a serious felony. His defense attorney had him pleadguilty to a lesser felony, and obtained a sentence of probation, but failed to warn his client that by pleading guilty to a felony, he would lose his T.P.S.. His defense attorney wasn’t familiar with immigration law: he had no idea a conviction for a felony would automatically cost his client his T.P.S.. Continue reading
Successful Criminal & Deportation Defense
Our 17 year old client was arrested and charged with a “B” violent felony assault after members of a gang crashed a birthday party and assaulted his friend. He faced 25 years in prison. In the course of the wild fight which broke out between the guests and the gang members, a gang member was stabbed and seriously injured.The police arrested several people, including our client, who denied involvement in the stabbing, but admitted being involved in the fighting.
We provided the District Attorney’s Office with character letters from our client’s teachers stating he was a model student and athlete, as well as from his employer. We also presented evidence indicating he had not been involved in the stabbing. Our client was permitted to plead guilty to a misdemeanor assault and was adjudicated a “youthful offender” – which resulted in no criminal conviction and a sealed record. After he was taken into immigration custody, we were also retained to defend him in his deportation-removal proceedings. Continue reading
Conviction Vacated: Deportation Proceedings Terminated!
Our client left Vietnam to live in the U.S. when he was 14 years old. When he was 19 he was arrested at school, and charged with attempting to sell some ecstasy he had purchased at a rave in the City. He pleaded guilty to a controlled substance offense. Unfortunately, his defense attorney never warned him his guilty plea made him deportable.
Many years later, now in his late twenties,and a college graduatewith a promising career, our client was detained by I.C.E.attempting to return to the U.S. after a weekend trip to Canada. He learned that despite being a legal “permanent” resident, and despite the many years which had passed, his conviction for a controlled substance offense made him inadmissible to, and deportable from, the U.S.. He was placed into deportation proceedings and faced the frightening reality that he could be deported and separated from his family because of his guilty plea. Continue reading
GREEN CARD: THIRD TIME’S A CHARM
When he was twelve, our client’s mother died. His stepmother turned him away from his father’s home in Canada, so our foreign-born client visited, and was ultimately raised by, his older sister in New York City. His teenage years and early twenties were troubled, resulting in a series of arrests and convictions for low level offenses. At 30, he married and moved to Florida, where he started a family and has since lived an exemplary life.
Unfortunately, the actions he took as animmature and angry young man frustrated his attempts to gain legal status in the U.S.. He livedundocumented, in fear of deportation. Over the years he spent his limited funds on a series of lawyers who gave him bad advice and whose attempts to gain him legal status were unsuccessful. At his second U.S.C.I.S. interview, his attorney sat silently, with folded hands, when the Officer told him his marijuana convictions barred him from ever becoming a legal permanent resident, and could even lead to his deportation. Continue reading
24 HOURS – 3 BIG WINS!
1. Client who pleaded guilty to single drug sale, based upon erroneous advice of prior defense counsel regarding immigration consequences of plea, ordered deported-removed for drug trafficking “aggravated felony”. Earlier this week, we learned he was in transit from New York to Louisiana – facing imminent deportation. He has lived in U.S. 16 years, as L.P.R., since the age of 7. Our application for stay of removal in Second Circuit, filed earlier this week, stops his deportation. Yesterday, N.Y.S. Appellate Division grants our motion for leave to file late notice of appeal, so conviction is no longer “final”. Client released from custody last night – now home with his family while we pursue both motion to vacate conviction, and direct appeal, based upon Padilla violation. Continue reading