What Should I Do If I Am In Deportation Proceedings?

Today’s Show

Thank you for joining us and being with us as usual in our “El Show Sin Fronteras”. In this opportunity, we bring a very important issue for the undocumented immigrant community, and that is that there are many, many people who are in danger of deportation or have an order of deportation within the United States.

It is undoubtedly the greatest fear that any of us can have when we are inside the country, so we will be discussing this process with professional and clear information..

Risk Of Being Deported

We will discuss what to do when we are in deportation proceedings, but first of all, our immigration attorney Kate will tell us a little bit about: Why would anyone be in danger of deportation? What would be the reason?

Kate tells us: ”Most people who are in deportation proceedings or in immigration court have been placed in proceedings after being caught crossing the border, applied for asylum and are already in immigration defense proceedings.

People who normally seek protection in the United States are seeking asylum and must fill out Form I-589. They have to provide testimonies and evidence of the danger in their own country.

The rest of the people who were caught inside the U.S. after passing through on a visa, or after crossing without permission but not being caught, are people who represent more than 95% of the cases that have been placed in immigration or deportation proceedings in court.

Those people are put through that process after an arrest for driving without a license, etc.

Then the deportation proceedings begin in front of the immigration judge.

There are people who are caught in a raid or just asked for affirmative asylum and that case was denied, there are certain cases where a person can be put in that process and they didn’t cross and they weren’t arrested.”

Can someone stop this deportation order?

Kate says: ”Yes, everyone has the right to defend themselves in front of the immigration judge, and there are many defenses available to them.

Is this a process that you recommend that someone do on their own or would it be more convenient to take on an immigration attorney?

Kate shares with us: ”Everyone needs a representative, it is not a requirement because you can appear by yourself in front of the immigration judge, but the consequences are very serious if there is even the slightest mistake in your case, and that is why no one should appear in immigration court without a legal expert.

There are still processes and ways to ask for time to prepare, to not be detained, to not be deported, to protect your eligibility and to come again in the future, so no one should go to immigration court alone.”

Are You Being Deported?

What would be the appropriate course of action for a person who knows he or she already has a deportation order?

Kate tells us: ”There are a lot of people in the situation where they have a deportation order in court because maybe they decided not to show up at the hearing, or they didn’t know they had a hearing scheduled because the court didn’t notify them, or they didn’t have the right address, there are many reasons, but someone who has deportation in absentia is at risk because If such persons are detained or arrested by the police, they can be deported at any time without being able to defend themselves because the judge has already decided their case.

There are ways to reopen those deportation orders in absentia, depending on whether you do not receive a notice or other options as well.

Everyone who knows they have such a deportation order should call an attorney to investigate what options they have to reopen their case because it is a very common type of case for us because we encounter many clients who did not know they had deportation in absentia, they knew they were placed in the process, but they lost all their documents and they don’t know when their court is.

There are other ways that we can go through the court system, order a copy of the file and see what defenses they have, and if we can reopen the case then move forward with a defense such as Asylum, Cancellation Removal, Victim Visas, VAWA.

There are many types of cases that we can handle when the proceedings are open, but when the deportation order is made, it is very important to act as soon as possible so that we don’t have to take any chances with that order.

Does this mean that Green Card holders, U.S. citizens, or people who are in the DACA program, the Dreamers, would not be free from any deportation order or are they in that danger?

Kate: ”It’s very rare to find a person who has their protected status as a permanent resident, deferred action DACA, VAWA, with a deportation order, because over 90% of affirmative cases like residency or DACA, require a biometric fingerprinting appointment and they review your immigration history as they are processing this data, but especially if we find a person who has a deportation order but also has other protected data, it can be an argument to reopen your case and sometimes completely terminate deportation proceedings so you don’t have to attend your hearings.

What To Do If You Are In Deportation Proceedings?

It’s important to hire an attorney, and we were just having that conversation at our team meeting.

A person who wants to apply for asylum had the question “What is the best way to apply for asylum? What is the latest I can hire them, because I want to get my case in February, and we were discussing the importance of getting started as soon as possible so that we can prepare the asylum application and submit our case to the immigration court at the right time and with the right paperwork?

If there is a change in the hearing, court, or judge, we will be notified.

Normally in a deportation defense case when you are asking for a defense, that type of application comes with eligibility for a work permit, but for example, if you are asking for asylum, you have to wait 5 months after you send your application to the court, and before we send your asylum case, you can ask for the work permit.

Another thing to consider is when a person is eligible for a work permit.

Legal Assistance For Undocumented Immigrants At Risk Of Deportation Or Punishment In Texas

The most important thing you can do is to cooperate with your attorney by gathering the information, the documents that are needed depending on your type of case, such as a domestic violence case, going to appointments with a counselor to help you, but you can also give us a letter that would talk about how you’ve suffered.

It’s important to collect and have those options so that by the time we get to the final hearing we have enough evidence and proof to win your case, and if you still don’t have a license or work permit, it would be a good idea not to drive as much as possible to avoid being stopped, but we know that’s not possible for everyone, so we recommend that you don’t drive faster than the accepted speed, you should have everything working on your car, good working lights and your stickers.”

Lincoln-Goldfinch Law Services

We have received calls from people who tell us Why so expensive? My son, my compadre, had a U Visa and nothing to do with it. Why so expensive? What benefits do I get when I open an asylum case or what happens? Why so long? What reason or what answer would there be to these facts?

Our dearest lawyer Kate tells us: ”We offer a fee that covers all the work required in a deportation defense case, your asylum application, your work permit, all your hearings; finding evidence in your home country, finding an expert or a counselor, people to testify, all of that is included because we don’t want to give our clients any surprises.

In fact, for us to handle a case well, to have a chance at the end of the day to win, we have to focus a lot, especially in deportation defense cases, and there are many hours required of an attorney, because we have to prepare our clients, do the written argument (affidavit), and we don’t want to give half of our work and offer half the price, that would not be fair to our clients.

I was just talking to a client this week, as we were able to get his wife and two children fixed up.

They were all in deportation proceedings and they had another lawyer before they came to Lincoln-Goldfinch Law, and I remember the consultation with him because he didn’t have confidence in us, he didn’t know us and he had had a bad experience with his lawyer at the time because that lawyer didn’t give him the strategy of his wife’s case and his children’s case at all, and that was a year and a half ago, but this week I was talking to him and he told me that he was surprised from our first consultation at the price, but he also thanked me, because he said that that was the price and that now his wife is studying to be a nurse and his children are doing very well.

He told me that his past experience with the other lawyer was that he only gave them the following service: It‘s going to be $1,000 this step, it’s going to be $1,500, it’s going to be $2,000 and he never felt safe not even knowing what the legal plan was for his family.

Then he met us, we made his case and now everyone has their Green Cards.

I would say it’s a very delicate process and you have to know how to choose an expert you can trust, and that’s why it can be expensive, but it’s definitely effective. ”

What If My Lawyer Stops Talking To Me During My Asylum Case?

One of the most common questions we have in the office is the following: I was working with an immigration attorney, I was handling my asylum case, we had two cuts, they stopped communicating and they stopped answering me. Am I already on a deportation order? o What do I have to do?

Kate tells us: ”That’s a kind of power to reopen a case.

It’s not getting good representation from your lawyer (if you had a lawyer and you had an agreement saying that the lawyer was representing you in your deportation proceedings) the lawyer is the person who is going to get the news of the hearing, and if he had that information and didn’t share it with his client, obviously it’s the lawyer’s fault, so it’s possible to reopen the case again saying that your lawyer didn’t tell you that you had a hearing, but this goes for people who didn’t have a lawyer or thought their lawyer was representing them but it wasn’t part of the contract.

If the immigrant who is being deported did not know he or she had the hearing, there are usually arguments we can make in his or her defense.

For example, when we ask for a copy of the court file we will want to review the notice to appear, which has the charges and all the information we will need.

We’re going to see if the name is spelled correctly if the address is correct, if the notice had information about the court, the address of the court, the day and time of the hearing and if there’s missing information in that notice; that’s an argument to be able to reopen the case.

So when we meet a person who has deportation and didn’t know they had the hearing, the first step for us is to order the copy of the court, the copy of the file to see exactly what happened before the judge made that order, to see what arguments we have.”

Administration Closure

One more question we have from our dear audience is the following: What is Administration Closure?

Kate shares with us: ”Administrative Closing is a way to pause a deportation defense case.

That was something we did in Obama’s time, in Trump’s time, and now it’s starting again because it’s a president’s policy where attorneys general can make decisions in court saying yes or no.

Now they can, but it’s a strategy in a deportation case. it is a strategy in a deportation case.

Let’s say a person is in deportation proceedings but has not been in the United States for 10 years, does not qualify for Cancellation Removal because their asylum case is not as strong because they did not suffer something extreme let’s say, or they are married to a citizen but entered without a Visa, then we have to do consular processing.

In these cases, we again have the opportunity to file the family petition to move forward with the consular process and then finish the case.

Basically, Administration Closure is another strategy we have for handling a deportation case.

Normally if there is something positive that we can do with immigration, for example, adjustment of status, consular processing, VAWA, it means that when a case is paused, you don’t have to keep going to your hearings, so the case still stays as pending o open but you don’t have to appear in court every 3-6 months.”

Our audience would like to know another strategy for this type of case.

Kate shares with us: ”There are many in fact, as it is a very complicated part of the law when it comes to deportation cases.

That’s why it’s very important to have a lawyer who has a lot of experience in this area specifically because there are many immigration lawyers who know how to handle different immigration cases, like employee cases, family cases, but asylum cases or deportation defense cases, that’s a special part of immigration law.”

Permanent Bar & Immigration Relief

Another question from the audience: If someone has many deportations and a permanent bar, can’t that person ask for any immigration relief? No asylum? No family?

Our dearest attorney Kate shares with us: ”It depends on the specific history of that person, we should have a consultation to discuss the deportations, and whether they were actually deportations from a judge, were they voluntary departures at the border or expedited exposure.

There are many ways to be deported and they all have different consequences.

The permanent bar is for people who have multiple entries into the United States after deportation or after having a year without permission in the country.

Generally in humanitarian cases such as T-Visa for victims of human trafficking, for victims of crime in U-Visa, for victims of domestic violence in VAWA, or asylum cases, deportation defense cases in general. it is possible to ask for more pardons for things like permanent punishment or deportations.

In general, is eligible for humanitarian cases when for example someone is carrying a permanent punishment, it’s not possible to arrange for a relative without being outside the United States for 10 years, but that’s different in each case.

If you have additional questions about deportations, permanent bars, pardons, or your specific case, you can contact us at (855) 502-0555. After a short 10 minute evaluation of your case via telephone we will let you know what options you have. You can also follow us on our social networks so you don’t miss our weekly broadcasts via Facebook, YouTube & Twitch.

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