OC Immigration Attorney

The Department of Homeland Security is reviewing thousands of pending immigration cases and moving to dismiss those filed against suspected illegal immigrants who have no serious criminal records.

According to Richard Rocha, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, the review is part of the agency’s broader, nationwide strategy to prioritize the deportations of illegal immigrants who pose a threat to national security and public safety. Rocha declined to provide further details.

Critics assailed the plan as another sign that the Obama administration is trying to create a kind of backdoor “amnesty” program. An immigration attorney who was briefed on the effort by Homeland Security’s deputy chief counsel in Houston, said DHS confirmed that it’s reviewing cases nationwide, though not yet to the pace of the local office. However, they are following general guidelines that allow for the dismissal of cases for defendants who have been in the country for two or more years and have no felony convictions. In some instances, defendants can have one misdemeanor conviction, but it cannot involve a DWI, family violence or sexual crime.

Opponents of illegal immigration were critical of the dismissals. However, immigrants who have had their cases terminated are frequently left in limbo, and are not granted any form of legal status. These illegal immigrants still have no work permits and Social Security Numbers. ICE is not going to proceed with their removal from the United States. However, they are still here illegally.

In a June 30 memo, ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton outlined the agency’s priorities, saying it had the capacity to remove about 400,000 illegal immigrants annually. The memo outlines priorities for the detention and removal system, putting criminals and threats to national security at the top of the list. Recently, ICE officials provided a copy of a new policy memo from Morton dated Aug. 20 that instructs government attorneys to review the court cases of people with pending applications to adjust status based on their relation to a U.S. citizen. Morton estimates in the memo that the effort could affect up to 17,000 cases.

Records show that about 47,000 people have been removed or deported from the U.S. after the Homeland Security Department sifted through 3 million sets of fingerprints taken from bookings at local jails.

Additionally, according to government data obtained by immigration advocacy groups that have filed a lawsuit, about one quarter of those deported from the U.S. did not have criminal records. At issue is a fingerprint-sharing program known as Secure Communities that the government claims to be focused on getting rid of the “worst of the worst” criminal immigrants from the U.S.

However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who divides crimes into three categories, with Level 1 being the most serious, has mostly deported committed Level 2 or 3 crimes and non-criminals.

Peter Markowitz, director of the Immigration Justice Clinic at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, said that ICE has pulled a bait and switch, with local law enforcement spending more time and resources facilitating the deportations of bus boys and gardeners than murderers and rapist.

Furthermore, Markowitz’s clinic, the National Day Laborer Organizers Network and the Center for Constitutional Rights had requested and sued for the statistics. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released some of the documents late Monday.

Richard Rocha, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, said non-criminals still may be people who have failed to show up for deportation hearings, who recently crossed the border illegally or who re-entered the country after deportation. He also said it’s important to remember that more people commit crimes that are considered Level 2 and 3, and that Secure Communities is beneficial for ICE, state and local law enforcement; helping to identify and remove convicted criminal aliens not only from the communities, but also from the country.

The Obama administration wants Secure Communities operating nationwide by 2013.

As of Aug. 3rd, 494 counties and local and state agencies in 27 states were sharing fingerprints from jail bookings through the program.

From October 2008 through June of this year, 46,929 people identified through Secure Communities were removed from the U.S., the documents show. Of those, 12,293 were considered non-criminals.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that wants attention more for its complex customs and terrorism investigations than its immigration duties, has gone on a media blitz as of late.

ICE chief John Morton has popped up all over the place, from making public appearances around the country.  Along with Morton’s visibility, the agency has also tried to raise its profile in other ways, with an organizational shake-up and press releases on everything from child pornography busts to its efforts to crackdown on human rights violators seeking safe haven in the United States.

Under the Obama administration ICE officials have stated that one of their priorities is to reform how the agency detains immigrants. In late July, the agency unveiled a new online system to find detained immigrants after previous reports of detainees moved around the country.

Last week the agency posted on its web site a month-by-month report of deportations. ICE has also tweaked its site, with prominent displays of the statistics, the new detainee finder system and its list of reforms.

However, according to immigration advocates, the agency might take another look at some of the displays. The image used for the online detainee locator system of a little girl and an adult woman searching for someone in the computer screen.  According to Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, a pro-immigration group that advocates for reform, the photo on the web site was a cruel joke rather than an image enhancer since ICE has separated more families than any other federal agency by far.

ICE replaced the image for the online detainee locator system with an image of a computer keyboard recently. Furthermore, an ICE spokesman said the agency would review the web site.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched its On-Line Detainee Locator System.  The system allows attorneys, family members, and other individuals to locate noncitizens who are in ICE custody.  ICE has stated that the system includes all facilities where it detains immigrants.  The system does not include individuals held in state or local custody under an ICE detainer, as they are not physically in ICE custody.  The system is updated within 8 hours of an apprehension or transfer within ICE custody.

The locator can be found here

In San Diego, California, Mosab Hassan Yousef seeks asylum, claiming he will be killed if he is deported from the United States to the West Bank. Yousef, who abandoned Islam for Christianity, is the oldest son of one of Hamas’ founders, was an Israeli spy for a decade, and now is marked as a traitor.

However, Homeland Security called Yousef a terrorist danger when it denied asylum in February 2009

He is scheduled to plead his case on Wednesday to an immigration judge in San Diego. The Department of Homeland Security wants him deported; they believe he is a danger to the security of the United States.

Four months ago Mr. Yousef published a book, in which Yousef  describes growing up admiring Hamas and hating Israel.

Yousef, 34, settled in Southern California after arriving in Los Angeles with a tourist visa in January 2007. At this time, he remains free while his application for asylum is considered.

Asylum applicants can close their hearings to the public, however Yousef welcomes the publicity. He urges supporters to contact the Homeland Security attorney assigned to his case and invites anyone in the San Diego area to attend his hearing.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency within Homeland Security that is arguing the government’s case, declined to comment, stating that it respects the privacy of all individuals involved in the immigration litigation process.

Yousef says his father, a senior Hamas leader who is serving a six-year sentence in an Israeli prison, disowned him in March.

Mosab Hassan Yousef was prepared to spend three-and-a-half hours Wednesday morning arguing for asylum before Homeland Security Immigration Court Judge Richard Bartolomei.
Instead, the hearing ended after only 15 minutes when government lawyers said they no longer opposed the request.

“There has been a change in the department,” Homeland Security attorney Kerri Calcador told Bartolomei without elaborating.

Outside the detention center, Yousef claimed he was surprised, and added that the US is the greatest country since the Constitution protects liberty all the time.

Until the hearing, immigration officials had questioned Yousef’s claims that he helped Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, kill Hamas officials and thwart bombing attacks while working as a driver and aide to his father, Sheik Hassan Yousef.

The younger Yousef has lived in the San Diego area since arriving in the United States in 2007 with a tourist visa. The trip followed his rejection of his Islamic faith in 2005. Yousef said he was drawn to San Diego after meeting Christian missionaries from a local church who were visiting Israel.

Yousef said he will continue offering assistance to U.S. investigators and speaking out publicly against terrorism while promoting his book. He also plans to seek U.S. citizenship and apply to Harvard University to pursue a master’s in Middle Eastern studies.

On March 12, while Leslie Cocche stood at the Fort Lauderdale Tri-Rail station awaiting the train to Miami, where she attends College, a U.S. Border Patrol agent suddenly began questioning her, and eventually discovered that the 18-year-old Peruvian was in the country illegally. Cocche then was arrested, handcuffed and handed over for deportation proceedings.

In contrast to the controversial Arizona state law that would allow police officers to request immigration papers from individuals, federal immigration agents are allowed to demand documents from any foreign national at any time.

Even after Homeland Security said that immigration authorities would focus on removing convicted foreign criminals, apparently the situation has not changed much.

Officials of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Homeland Security agency in charge of deportations, acknowledge that deportations of noncriminal immigration-law violators are continuing, but say the agency now views them as “low-priority.”

However, figures from Oct. 1 to June 7 show that the number of criminal and noncriminal removals are almost even. The number of noncriminal removals still exceeds that of criminal deportations, but only by 257 people.

According to Cheryl Little, executive director of the Miami-based Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, the ICE definition of criminal includes people found guilty of minor violations, such as expired driver’s license and illegal entry into the United States.

The Cocche case is particularly galling to immigrant rights advocates because she is in the country not by choice but because her parents brought her here when she was a child and legislation repeatedly introduced in Congress as the DREAM Act would grant young undocumented students green cards.

The U.S. Border Patrol’s assistant chief patrol agent for the Miami Sector, stated that she was found to be illegally in the US, arrested and placed in removal proceedings. Subsequently, her sister and parents were placed in deportation proceedings as well.

Cocche was detained for 11 days and eventually released with the promise that she and her family would report later to immigration court in Miami.

If they lose their case they could all be deported.

The Office of the Chief Immigration Judge (OCIJ) regularly monitors immigration judge (IJ)
performance and conduct through EOIR’s performance management program, and through its
daily supervision of the courts. In instances where concerns regarding an immigration judge’s
conduct arise, the OCIJ is committed to ensuring that any allegations are investigated and
resolved in a fair and expeditious manner.

Complaints against IJs may be initiated in one of two ways.

First, an individual or group may
file a formal complaint with either the Assistant Chief Immigration Judge for Conduct and
Professionalism (ACIJ C/P) or the appropriate supervisory Assistant Chief Immigration Judge
(ACIJ). The complaint may be communicated either in writing or orally, and it may be
anonymous. A written or oral complaint must contain at least a brief statement describing the
IJ’s alleged conduct that gave rise to concern.

Second, OCIJ may itself become aware of information that suggests an IJ may have engaged in
inappropriate conduct. Such information may come to the attention of OCIJ in a variety of
circumstances including, but not limited to, news reports, referrals from other components or
agencies, such as the Board of Immigration Appeals or Office of Immigration Litigation, or
routine reviews of agency and court decisions.

Upon the receipt or identification of a complaint, OCIJ will assign a number to the complaint and
create an entry for it in OCIJ’s complaint tracking database. When the complaint came from an
identifiable complainant who has provided contact information, OCIJ will acknowledge its
receipt of the complaint.

If you are currently in deportation or removal proceedings in immigration court in Los Angeles or San Diego, contact The Nunez Firm to schedule a free consultation. Managing attorney Jay Nunez will personally discuss your case with you and help you better understand the options available to you.

In Cruz Rendon v. Holder, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Immigration Judge Anna Ho’s denial of a cancellation of removal application for non-lawful permanent residents. The Ninth Circuit found that Judge Ho’s refusal to grant a continuance for Cruz Rendon’s attorney to better prepare the cancellation case denied Cruz Rendon “a full and fair hearing.” Additionally, the Appeals Court found that Judge Ho was unreasonable in limiting Cruz Rendon’s testimony regarding her son’s learning disabilities.

Cancellation of removal for non-lawful permanent residents is a form of relief from deportation that allows undocumented aliens to remain in the United States if they meet certain criteria. The alien must have been physically present in the United States for not less than 10 years. The alien must have good moral character during the ten year period. The alien must not have been convicted of certain offenses. Finally, the alien must prove that removal/deportation from the United States would result in “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” to the alien’s US citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse, parent or child.

Cruz Rendon entered the United States at some time after January 1, 1990. She had a four year old son with ADHD. A psychologist provided a report regarding the son’s ADHD. During Ms. Cruz Rendon’s testimony, she tried to explain the child’s learning disability and the difficulties associated with it, but Judge Ho continuously cut her off and disallowed the testimony stating “I believe the psychologist’s evaluation is much better than what this lady has to tell me.”

The Ninth Circuit criticized Immigration Judge Ho for not allowing a continuance as well. Ms. Cruz Rendon appeared at her court hearing on December 16, 2004 with her attorney for the first time. Immigration Judge Ho scheduled the trial for January 14, 2005, which allowed counsel only one month to prepare for the trial. (Keep in mind that most attorneys are allowed 4-12 months to prepare for trial.)

In the end, the Ninth Circuit held “We have no difficulty concluding that the denial of the requested continuance, in conjunction with the limitations placed upon her testimony, prevented Cruz Rendon from fully and fairly presenting her case. We likewise conclude that the outcome of the hearing may have been affected by these procedural deficiencies. The IJ stated repeatedly that Jose was ‘only’ four years old, and apparently formed the opinion that Jose might simply outgrow his problems. Had Cruz Rendon been permitted to offer more detail about Jose’s medical and educational issues, and had a continuance been granted to permit the further evaluation recommended by Jose’s psychologist, the IJ’s conclusion might have been different. Moreover, had Cruz Rendon been afforded time to obtain evidence regarding the schools in Mexico, the IJ might not have relied impermissibly upon her own unsupported opinion that Mexico ‘is really trying very hard to work on [special education].’ ”

If you are currently in deportation proceedings in immigration court, contact The Nunez Firm to schedule a free consultation. Managing attorney Jay Nunez will meet with you personally and explain your immigration situation and options to you thoroughly.

We just received an approval notice for an I-360 VAWA application based on domestic violence. We filed the I-360 VAWA application in December 2008, and the Vermont Service Center approved the case 14 months later (which is the standard processing time at this point).

She married her husband several years ago.After the wedding, he began to exhibit signs of controlling behavior. His control issues gradually progressed and he eventually became violent on several occasions. He began stalking her and questioning her any time she left the house. Eventually, she became scared for her life and moved away.

After the divorce, she was afraid that her green card would be revoked. Her husband petitioned for her to receive a green card and it was approved. After two years of having the green card, she was required to file a joint petition along with her husband to have the conditions on her green card removed, so that she would become a full-fledged lawful permanent resident. Because her marriage was no longer viable and her husband would no longer cooperate, she was put in immigration court for deportation proceedings. Around this time is when she hired The Nunez Firm.

After she explained the abuse she had suffered during her marriage, I suggested that we pursue VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) which allows the spouse of an abusive US citizen spouse to apply for a green card if she can show that the marriage was entered in good faith and the US citizen spouse was physically abusive or extremely cruel during the marriage. She agreed and we filed the VAWA application (Form I-360) within a few months.

The client was extremely excited to hear the good news. Now, we will file a motion to terminate the immigration court proceedings and adjust her status to lawful permanent resident, so that she will be able to live and work in the United States indefinitely.

If you or someone you know is caught in an abusive marriage with a US citizen, contact The Nunez Firm. Managing attorney Jay Nunez handles many domestic abuse immigration cases from all over the country, and he will personally discuss your situation with you and determine what options are available. VAWA cases are difficult and having an experienced immigration attorney involved is often necessary.