Public Defenders Need to Verify Immigration Consequences!

I recently had the fortunate experience to sit in on an interesting immigration hearing. The immigration judge (IJ) is a friendly and compassionate person who thoroughly understands the law and often gives the alien respondent the benefit of the doubt when it comes down to making decisions.

Unfortunately there was no doubt as to how the law could apply to the respondent at this hearing. The respondent is a young man from a country in Central America. His parents brought him to the United States at the age of four and he has been here ever since. In every aspect of culture and experience—except for the place of his birth—this man is American. He has no accent, nor does he communicate primarily in Spanish.

For reasons unknown, this young man never naturalized (became a U.S. citizen), even though he has been legally present in the United States for a sufficient amount of time.

Things went bad beginning a few years ago when this man began to suffer from the symptoms of schizophrenia. The disease progressed rapidly and before anyone realized that the young man needed help, he committed some minor crimes. These crimes were not planned out crimes that would yield a financial gain—they were nonsensical and random instances that were consistent with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

A well-versed watcher of “Law and Order” or “Boston Legal” would think to have this man plead innocence by reason of insanity and give him the opportunity to receive the help he needed. Instead this man pled guilty to all of his crimes and served out his criminal sentence. It is unclear what his criminal attorney was doing for him, but it is very clear that this man committed these crimes because he has a mental illness. It is also very clear that this defense attorney did not know nor seek to know the immigration consequences of his client’s actions.

Soon after, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE, previously INS) came after him and put him into deportation proceedings. Unfortunately, there is no way for the IJ to undo the criminal convictions. Because there is no way to prove that this man will be persecuted in his home country because of his mental illness—his fate is sealed and he will probably be ordered deported.

When the legal nuances of this case are taken away and we view it simply as it is. This man is essentially being deported because he suffers from a mental illness. The laws definitely do not state this, nor is it that black and white—but his initial ineffective counsel in his criminal proceedings has rendered him deportable.
Even the most sympathetic and scholarly IJ cannot ignore what the laws force him to do. The truth is that criminal attorneys, particularly public defenders rarely have the understanding or foresight—or likely the time to effectively address their clients’ immigration status and how their conviction or sentence will change that.

What About LEGAL Immigration???

Immigration is a loaded and confusing topic. No doubt everyone has their own opinions about illegal immigration and what to do about it, if anything. I firmly believe that something needs to be done. I did not think that I would be in the situation that I am now, but many times over the past 8 months I have contemplated the illegal immigration of my spouse. I never contemplated seriously, but I definitely know a little about the frustration and feelings of cruel separation that the process of legal immigration does to a family.

My husband is from Nepal, a historically peaceful and non-threatening country. Though recently the Maoists have been declared terrorists by the Bush Administration, Drona, my husband, is not one of them. In fact his family has been threatened by them. Drona's brother was kidnapped and Drona's parents are still trying to pay the Maoists off for releasing him several years ago.

I suppose I could have tried to spin the situation into a more immediate threat demanding that Drona must promptly flee the area, but I chose to follow the legitimate path. I am a fan of playing by the rules. I started by filing the I-130 petition only to find out that there have been unprecedented delays in processing times. In the few months before and after I had filed the form with USCIS*, which is now run by DHS**, millions more applicants had filed petitions than normal. USCIS informed me that they had hired an additional 1500 workers to process these forms. After several phone calls to check the status and make sure I didn't have to start the process all over again, I finally received my receipt notice. The receipt normally arrives about a month after filing. I filed in September and did not get my receipt until the end of February.

This was only the first step in the whole process. I was already upset and frustrated. I wasn't even close to actually applying for a visa. Phone communications are limited in Nepal, especially in Drona's village. I am confident to say that e-mail is a crappy way to sustain a relationship.

Meanwhile, I continued to hear stories of friends who have immigrant friends or relatives. Many of whom have failed to maintain their statuses or immigrated illegally or overstayed their visas and went before a judge to get excused… I have yet to hear of a judge who denied their requests.

To quell any suspicions, I am most definitely pro-immigration and I understand much of the desperation surrounding decisions to immigrate illegally. But the process to immigrate legally should not be more cumbersome and delayed than illegal immigration being pardoned into a legal status. That is incentive alone to immigrate illegally.

Hiring more than 1500 people to process the additional 2 million or so petitions would be a start. I definitely do not advocate letting bad people in or becoming lax in the requirements. I do advocate moving the process forward. It only takes a few minutes to process these petitions, and from what I understand, they even let employees work from home! This would not jeopardize our national security in any way. Additionally, how about the PATRIOT Act actually allows for the organizations to work together in this situation as well. Instead of having to check and cross check names on every database all around the country, they could be consolidated.

Thank goddess that Drona doesn't share a name with a suspected terrorist . knock on wood There are several hundred thousand names now in the system. Innocent family members are kept out of the country for years because they have similar names to suspected terrorists. I hope that our government is capable of telling the difference between the terrorists and the non-terrorists.

Clearly I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the immigration issues America is dealing with. This just happens to be one I am unfortunately too familiar with. The sub-culture of illegal immigrants currently in our country is also of great concern to me. Essentially, various forms of slavery are occurring in our country which is arguably must more serious than my impatience with USCIS and the State Department. Sadly, I have had limited time procrastinating at work to really get into this issue.

*United States Citizen and Immigration Services (formerly INS)

**Department of Homeland Security

What kind of "experience" are you looking for anyways?

or

Where would art be without "starvation"?

As a 1L in law school, my classmates and I are all vying for that one summer job that can give us "experience" to put on our resume so that we can get another summer job. I personally dread writing resumes. I have to answer subjective questions like, "What verbage should I use to convey my ability to 'work well under pressure' and 'multitask' when I had to sneak money and food to streetchildren in jails, ignore the catcalls from the inmates, make sure the very same streetchildren didn't rip me off, and pretend to be a social worker/doctor/lawyer, all while convincing the warden to keep the kids away from the rapist, catcalling adults?" Is that the kind of experience employers are looking for in law students? It is either a "no," or the title "crisis manager" does not adequately convey this. I have never felt so rejected by the world before coming to law school and being turned down for countless unpaid jobs.

Fortunately, I believe I am not alone in my battle to constantly self-promote and yet continually feel rejected. Not to beat an already dead horse, but when the media, and my classmates and my other peers discuss Sen. Clinton as having “experience” and Sen. Obama as having “words,” I want to bang my head against the wall.

What kind of “experience” is it that we are looking for in a presidential candidate? I am honestly wondering. Personally, I would like a candidate who has faced the growing environmental crisis his whole life. I would like a candidate who has lived in countries other than this one and understands the effect the United States has on other countries---not just how those countries affect us. I would like a candidate who has attended school for international relations during a time well beyond the cessation of unfounded fears of communism. Frankly, I want a candidate who understands the struggle of the downtrodden in this country and what it’s like to fall in the cracks of the boxes we have placed on people: black, white, rich, poor, republican, democrat.

If my peers want a candidate who is well ingrained in what American politics is today, then they have her. But I prefer one who knows not only what it’s like to be an American, but an American who has to deal with the huge mess of problems my parents’ generation has created, ignored or made worse. I want a candidate who won’t retire quietly after his eight years, but who knows his work, our work is not going to be over. I want a candidate who has to deal with the fact that his own children may not have clean water to drink or money to pay for the war that a bunch of gray-haired politicians sent my peers to die in. At least Obama talks about black anger and racism. He is going to have to deal with Generation Y anger too: tuition prices, mercury poisoning pollutants, scarce amounts of "safe" food and "safe" plastic, homophobic parents and general decline in the overall quality of life.

And what is really wrong with giving great speeches???

The fact that one can actually articulate and deliver their message in an effective way should not leave us with the assumption that they cannot fulfill their duties and obligations. It merely demonstrates how seriously they take their job and that they actually have a passion for their work. Obama is not playing pretend during these speeches. He is not putting on dress up clothes and acting like a candidate. He really is a candidate. He gives good speeches because they come from his experience.

Introductions (and Disclaimers?)

I just thought I would start out with a brief introduction.

I am currently a 1L at the George Washington University Law School. I am from the Midwest, specifically Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In lieu of giving you my resume, I will just say that I have had a random twenty-some years masked by my stable enrollment at educational institutions.

I will comment on topics ranging from politics, popular culture, unpopular culture, and undoubtedly law school to the toils of daily existence and what that means to me and my generation (whatever obscure letter we happen to be).

I will try to keep civil in my commentary and I welcome comment-makers to do the same.

I will be completely honest about what I think and answer questions honestly as they are posed to me.

That said, I may take radical stances in my consideration of certain ideas in order to expand my understanding. These stances do not necessarily reflect my beliefs.