No Conviction, But No Freedom: ICE Jails Over 13,000 Immigrants
Posted on | January 30, 2012 | No Comments
“On a single day this past fall, the United States government held 13,185 people in immigration detention who had not been convicted of a crime.
And yet the Dept of Homeland Security announced way back in June 2011 this would not be the case: Those who are persons of good moral character and have a way to apply for immigration benefits would not be detained. However our experience in Immigration Court does not bear this out.
ICE is continuing to detain those with no criminal record and DHS counsel will not terminate their deportation process without proof that a visa is currently available for that person to adjust to permanent residence.
We have a client who is present on a visa, married to a lawful permanent resident and DHS will not allow her to remain here until her spouse becomes a US citizen and can petition for her. This is important to her for if she is forced to leave her spouse, she will be banned for ten years from re entering the U.S.
If you have questions regarding these issues call us (702) 836-9003 or email our lawyer attyconsult@yahoo.com
The article goes on to state:
Instead, at a cost of roughly 2 million taxpayer dollars per day, the innocent men and women were detained while immigration authorities sorted out their fates. This case stands in stark contrast to the stated goal of immigration policy under the administration of President Barack Obama: to detain and deport unauthorized immigrants who’ve been convicted of crimes.
www.sanfranciscoimmigrationservices.com
Tags: crimes and immigrants > family unity > Immigrant Visa > married to LPR > prosecutorial discretion > removal from the U.S. deportation and removal > Visa Bulletin > Visa Overstay
Immigration Court Defendant Files Cancellation of Removal Now that His Controlled Substance Conviction Has Been Vacate
Posted on | January 20, 2012 | No Comments
Our client Rico was held and put into Immigration Court Removal Proceedings in Nevada after pleading guilty to and being convicted of Possession of Drug paraphernalia a deportable offense. We successfully obtained a dismissal of his conviction pursuant to Padilla v Kentucky in that Rico was not represented by a lawyer when he pled guilty and did not know the immigration consequences to his guilty plea. Now we will seek prosecutorial discretion from Department of Homeland Security to allow him out of Immigration Removal Proceedings so he can wait until his petition from his mother, who is a lawful permanent resident to become current in order that he can process an I 601 waiver in his home country of Mexico and return as a permanent resident himself.
Without obtaining a dismissal of his drug offense he would not be allowed out of Immigration Court Proceedings and he would be banned for 10 years once he returns to Mexico to apply for his I 601 waiver
attyconsult@yahoo.com 702-836-9003 , 775-826-2099 www.northernnevadalawyer.com 415-513-4533
Tags: Cancellation of Removal > criminal record immigration court > drugs and controlled substances > Nevada Immigration Court > prosecutorial discretion > unlawful presence 10 year ban > Waiver of inadmissibility
Drivers Licenses for Illegal Aliens?
Posted on | January 20, 2012 | No Comments
Many states, including Nevada, California and Arizona refuse to allow illegal immigrants to apply for a license to drive. This causes immense problems for the immigrant and his or her family but also to other drivers on the road. It results is folks taking the road who have never been tested, insured or in come cases competent to drive. Often it results in their arrest and possible deportation from the U.S. www.sanfranciscoimmigrationservices.com
One of the few states that allows illegal aliens to apply for driver’s licenses is New Mexico. Now the governor of that state is seeking to overturn that law. While it may be good politics for her it is not in the best interest of her constituents.
For information on how you may be able to obtain work authorization and a thereafter a drivers license you may call 702-836-9003 , 775-826-2099, 415-513-4533 or email attyconsult@yahoo.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/us/in-new-mexico-a-fight-anew-over-drivers-licenses-for-illegal-immigrants.html?_r=1&ref=us
Tags: arrests convictions > Immigration Court > removal deportation > work authorization permit
Illegal Alien Granted Bond after Controlled Substances Convictions Dismissed
Posted on | January 17, 2012 | No Comments
Julio has been present in the U.S. for more than 10 years and is the father of two U.S. citizen children. He was picked up by ICE when he appeared in Family Court to answer a temporary protection order brought by his ex-girl friend who is the mother of his children. He has been in detention in Arizona since that time, about 4 months. He was ineligible for a Bond or relief from deportation because of two controlled substances convictions.
We were able to keep him in immigration court proceedings long enough to obtain a dismissal of his two convictions pursuant to Kentucky vs. Padilla, which permits convicted defendants to seek a dismissal of their conviction in the event their prior defense counsel did not advise them of the immigration consequences of pleading guilty to controlled substances. www.northernnevadalawyer.com
Now that Julio is about to be bonded out, he can marry his U.S. citizen fiancé and being 245- i eligible from a prior petition of his lawful permanent mother he can now file a petition for permanent residence. If the I-130 petition is approved by USCIS and the immigration judge in Nevada approves his I-485 petition for adjustment of status he will be able to become a permanent resident without having to return to his native country of Mexico and thereby incur the 10 year ban of reentry.
For help in these matters you may consult with our lawyer by email attyconsult@yahoo.com or call (702) 836-9003, 775 826-2099 or 877-659-3771
Tags: 4/30/2001 245 i petition > adjustment of status family petition > Bond detention ICE > cancellation of removal deportation > good moral character dismiss conviction > immigration judge grant permanent residence > lpr mother petition
I 601 WAIVER APPROVALS IN THE U. S.
Posted on | January 17, 2012 | No Comments
With the new USCIS announcement to streamline the process for I 601 waiver approvals in the U.S. many of our clients are wondering when this will be put into effect and will they have to travel back to their home country for re-approval of the waiver and grant of the permanent residence.
The answer to no 1 is “maybe later this year or in 2013
The answer to no 2 is Yes they will have to return to their native country.
We are filing I 130 petitions for spouses and children of U.S. citizens in order to apply for the pardon waiving the 10 year ban of reentry for having accured 1 year of unlawful presence in the U.S. www.northernnevadalawyer.com
Kindly consult with our lawyer concerning these new developments (702) 836-9003, (775) 826-2099 or email: attyconsult@yahoo.com
Tags: new I-601 waiver law > new waiver regulation. > waiver regulation
USCIS New I 601 Waiver Rules?
Posted on | January 11, 2012 | No Comments
Take a look at the memo the USCIS has just released for a short explanation and Questions and Answers regarding the new USICS proposal to stream line waiver applications.
What has drawn the most interest from our immigration clients is the ability to file for and receive “provisional approval” of the waiver or pardon of unlawful presence without having to return home and incur the 10 year ban.
What applicants do not yet realize however, is that they will have to return home once the “provisional approval” is granted and in the event of denial here in the U.S. face deportation proceedings for removal or if denied in their home country face the 10 year ban there.
Our estimate is the government will take the better part of 2012 to implement these new procedures. Meanwhile, we continue to process waivers for our clients. We will not send our clients to their hole country for their award of permanent resident status until we are certain they have established extreme hardship to their spouse or U.S.C. child or children and we can prove the immigrant is a person of good moral character. Northern Nevada Lawyer
And we will give them the approximate wait time in their home country before the “provisional approval” becomes current.
Contact our office at 702-836-9003 or 775-826-2099 or by email: attyconsult@yahoo.com
Tags: crimes and illegals > extreme hardship spouse children > Good Moral Character > I 601 waivers > immigrant visa family > las vegas reno nevada residents > Nevada illegal entries > provisiona approval pardon > Unlawful Presence > USICS I 601
I 601 Waivers Inadmissiblity Travel to Country of Origin
Posted on | January 11, 2012 | No Comments
For several years now since 2008 we have obtained approval of I 601 Waivers, followed by an award of lawful permanent residence for spouses and children of U.S. citizens. One problem our clients have faced prior to retaining our lawyer’s services, is much misinformation on the issues of extreme hardship to the U.S. citizen and other criteria necessary to obtain approvals from USCIS.
san francisco immigration services
Now comes an announcement from USCIS of proposed measures to “streamline the process”. Now folks are calling us stating their spouse will not have to leave the U.S. to obtain permanent residence. We must caution readers to this site that such is not the state of the law and until it changes (if it ever does) applicants still face the 10 year ban of re entry to the U.S. Moreover the foreign national must return home to seek approval of the waiver. link northern nevada lawyer
This announcement as with the June 2011 announcement that DHS will not seek someones removal or deportation who is a person of good moral character have yet to been put fully into effect. Therefore we are urging our clients not to rely on announced governmental change in policy unit an experienced immigration attorney has reviewed the specified circumstances of each petition. For more information on the issue of “prosecutorial discretion” and I 601 Waivers you may contact our lawyer at 702-836-9003, 775-826-2099, 415-513-4533 or by email: attyconsult@yahoo.com
Tags: 10 year ban of reentry > Adjustment of Status > Cancellation of Removal > family petitions > I 601 waivers > prosecutorial discretion > U.S. Consulate Juarez Mexico
Economic Downturn and Enhanced Border Security affects towns in Mexico and Latin America
Posted on | January 6, 2012 | No Comments
With the loss of jobs in the U.S. less immigration is occurring at the U.S. borders. Arrests of Illegals by ICE has declined to its lowest levels since 1972. Many returning immigrants from the U.S. to Mexico and else where are in some cases bringing economic growth to their home countries. And as ICE cracks down on illegal workers in the U.S. there is now a shortage of willing workers in the agriculural and food serving industries.
For questions on how these issues are affecting you you can reach us a (702) 836-9003 (775) 826-2099 or email attyconsult@yahoo.com
January 5, 2012
Migrants’ New Paths Reshaping Latin AmericaBy DAMIEN CAVE
SANTA MARÍA ATZOMPA, Mexico — When the old-timers here look around their town, all they see are new arrivals: young Mexican men working construction and driving down wages; the children of laborers flooding crowded schools; even new businesses — stores, restaurants and strip clubs — springing up on roads that used to be dark and quiet.
The shock might seem familiar enough in countless American towns wrestling with immigration, but this is a precolonial Mexican village outside Oaxaca City, filling up with fellow Mexicans. Still, grimaces about the influx are as common as smiles.
“Before all these people came, everything was tranquil,” said Marcelino Juárez, 61, an artisan at the local ceramics market. “They bring complications. They don’t bring benefits.”
Throughout Mexico and much of Latin America, the old migratory patterns are changing. The mobile and restless are now casting themselves across a wider range of cities and countries in the region, pitting old residents against new, increasing pressure to create jobs and prompting nations to rewrite their immigration laws, sometimes to encourage the trend.
The United States is simply not the magnet it once was. Arrests at the United States’ southwest border in 2011 fell to their lowest level since 1972, confirming that illegal immigration, especially from Mexico, has reached what experts now describe as either a significant pause or the end of an era.
But this is not a shift in volume as much as direction. Nearly two million more Mexicans lived away from their hometowns in 2010 than was the case a decade earlier, according to the Mexican census. Experts say departures have also held steady or increased over the past few years in Guatemala, El Salvador, Peru and other Latin American countries that have traditionally been hubs of emigration.
The migrants are just not always going where they used to.
Mexicans, for example, are increasingly avoiding the United States and the border region, as well as their own capital, and are moving toward smaller, safer cities like Mérida, Oaxaca City and Querétaro. Experts say more Guatemalans are also settling in Mexico after years of passing through on the journey north.
To the south, the pull of Chile, Argentina and Brazil is also strengthening. The International Organization for Migration reports that the Bolivian population in Argentina has increased by 48 percent since 2001 (to 345,000), and that the country’s Paraguayan and Peruvian populations have grown even faster.
All of this movement is reshaping the region, making it less like a compass pointing north and more like a hub with many spokes. From the papayas grown by Bolivian farmers in Argentina to the recent discovery of exploited illegal workers in Chile and conflicts over local government in southern Mexico, this intraregional migration in Latin America has become both a challenge and a promising surprise for a part of the world that has generally framed the issue in terms of how many people leave for the United States.
“It’s like a river changing course,” said Gabino Cué Monteagudo, the governor of Oaxaca. “It’s the process of development — it’s inevitable.”
For the United States, the collective shift means fewer migrants crossing the border illegally and possibly more debate over whether the expanded budgets for immigration enforcement still make sense.
But the greatest impacts are being felt in fast-growing towns like Santa María Atzompa, where thousands of mostly poor, rural families have chosen to seek their fortunes. In the case of this town and the surrounding area, the growth has been “fast, barbaric and anarchic,” said Jorge Hernández-Díaz, a sociologist at the Autonomous University of Benito Juárez de Oaxaca.
A generation ago, he said, the road from Oaxaca City to the main plaza of Atzompa passed by fields and farmers, little more. The total population for the municipality in 1990 was 5,781. Now, this small piece of land has filled in with a labyrinth of dirt roads with dead ends, new businesses and thousands of homes in varying levels of construction and quality.
Residents say the population boom accelerated around 2006, as opportunities in the United States fell away and the dangers and cost of crossing the border became prohibitive amid drug cartel violence and stepped-up border security. Now, more than 27,000 people live in Atzompa, according to the 2010 census, and more keep coming.
Other regional poles are experiencing similar growth. Indeed, while the population of Mexico City has stabilized and immigration to the United States has declined, Mexico’s coastal and exurban areas have expanded.
This is partly because of the Mexican government’s efforts to decentralize development, often with incentives for international businesses. Just last month, Nissan said that it would build a factory in the central city of Aguascalientes. Here in Oaxaca State, experts say, the migration out of rural areas is also a product of land reforms in 1992 that, along with the North American Free Trade Agreement, made it harder for farmers to eke out a living and easier for them to sell land.
In South America, too, free trade agreements have contributed to more regional movement, as have steadily growing economies and new laws encouraging migration or protecting migrants’ rights in Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico and Ecuador, among others.
Improvements in technology (especially access to cellphones) and infrastructure (especially better roads) have also made it easier to discover and reach jobs in new places, fueling the classic urge to improve one’s lot without the obstacles and increasing perils of the trek north.
“It’s the economics, but also the culture and more information,” said Juan Artola, South America director for the International Organization for Migration. “Intraregional migration has grown a lot in the last decade and it’s very important because of the changes it implies.”
Continuing and expanding the move toward urbanization, migrants are now making Latin America more integrated, and more metropolitan, say demographers and experts throughout the region. About 77 percent of all Mexicans now live in urban areas, up from 66 percent in 1980.
That makes it easier and cheaper to provide services, including health care, water and electricity, say government officials. For migrants, education seems to be the main draw. Schools that go beyond secondary education are rare in the mountain towns of this poor state, and many young people say they came here to study or because a relative came to study.
Gabriel Hernández, 21, said that four of his brothers moved here to study, starting a decade ago. Some graduated, others did not, but the family opened a bodega about a year ago, selling produce from their hometown in the northern mountains.
Mr. Hernández and many other new residents in Atzompa, who come not only from Oaxaca, but also Veracruz, Mexico City and elsewhere, say they are happy with how things have gone.
Javier Espíritu 36, Buddha-round and covered in paint at the carpentry shop he opened last month, said he had no plans to move again. Business is decent, but his reasons go beyond economics. He came here with his wife and two children, a rarity for migrants who cross into the United States illegally, separated from their families. And unlike his older brothers who made that journey a decade ago, he said he traveled home to his village six hours south of here twice a year.
“When my mom needs anything, she calls me,” he said. “Going to other states, or the U.S. — it’s too complicated. Can you imagine me trying to take my whole family up there?”
And yet, as many Americans in communities with immigration growth have learned, new residents mean new challenges. Poverty in Atzompa remains high. A drug rehabilitation center sits down the block from Mr. Espíritu’s workshop; strip clubs promising “bellas chicas” are nearby, and longtime residents now complain about having too many young men with different values in their midst.
“They’re not from here,” said Mr. Juárez, the artisan, explaining the enduring divide.
Atzompa seems to have reached its breaking point. Governor Cué said that urbanization was one of his administration’s main priorities, but the government is clearly struggling to keep up with population growth. Only a handful of Atzompa’s roads are paved, and the main secondary school, built for about 120 students, now has nearly 700. Gym classes and sports practices take place on the dirt roads outside.
The strains have led to a deep conflict here over government and culture. Atzompa used to be simply a rural village run according to the communal “usos y costumbres” system of government, in which full civic rights accrue only to people who participate in government or community service and are born in the community. But as new residents began to outnumber old ones over the past few years, the recent arrivals complained that they were paying taxes and getting few or no services in return.
Tags: ICE Detention > immigration courts > Latin American Immigrants > Mexican national > Mixico country conditions > Removal from U.S. > U.S. Border Security > Work Authorization
Senator Reid Asked to Help Nevada Immigrants
Posted on | January 4, 2012 | No Comments
For the last two elections that he ran for U.S. Senator from Nevada, Senator Reid has campaigned in favor of Comprehensive Immigration Reforms. He won re election in 2004 by only a handful of votes and can count the Hispanic and other Immigrant groups as helping to push him over the top against his opponent. In 2010 he ran another successful but close election bid and again thanked the Immigrant Community for their support.
Now the Immigrant Community in Las Vegas, Reno, Elko etc is in need of his assistance with the announced DHS “prosecutorial discretion” initiative. This past summer Homeland Seurity Secretary Janet Napolitano announced a policy of terminating deportation proceedings against persons who are present without a visa (illegal aliens) but who can demonstrate good moral character. That was in June of 2011.
Now here we are in 2012 and we see no evidence of this policy being put into practice. We have contacted Senator Reid’s office about several cases in this group. All of them are persons of good moral character who despite this have been sent to Immigration Court. We requested directly in Court that their matters be terminated and were denied. We hear that this is a State Wide problem with DHS counsel in Las Vegas.
We will keep you up to date on the Senator’s response to our request.
Tags: Deportation and Removal > Good Moral Character > Nevada DHS/ICE > prosecutorial discretion
High School Graduate’s Deportation and Removal Terminated
Posted on | December 7, 2011 | No Comments
A Tennessee high school senior was arrested from driving without a license. and detained by ICE for entering the U.S. without benefit of a visa. Technically she has not accrued unlawful presence for more than 1 year triggering the 10 year ban of reentry since she just turned 18 years old. The 10 yer bar applies to those who are 19 and older. The 3 year bar applies to those who are 18 and one half.
DHS is currently reviewing its case load of illegal entries and criminal aliens. It has announce priority in deporting immigrants and non immigrants convicted of serious crimes rather than a person who is of good moral character and arrived in the U.S. without a visa.
Now that her deportation hearing has been cancelled once she graduates from high school and if the Dream Act passes she would be able to self petition fro permanent residence. For information on this issues call our attorney at 702-836-9003, 775-826-2099 or email him attyconsult@yahoo.com
Tenn. teen receives prosecutorial discretion
“Mercedes Gonzalez will be able to stay in the United States. For now, at least. Immigration officials have dropped deportation proceedings against the 18-year-old Overton High School graduate, who was arrested for driving without a license and held for deportation just days before graduation. The dropping of her case comes after public declarations by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that the agency was shifting priorities to dangerous illegal immigrants instead of those, like Gonzalez, who have lived in the country for years without getting into trouble.” – Tennessean, Dec. 3, 2011.
Tags: Deportation and Removal > DHS detention > DREAM Act > Good Moral Character > I-601 Waiver > ICE hold > illegal entry > terminate removal hearing > Unlawful Presence