Here is the visa bulletin for November 2013. This bulletin is published by the Department of State and it summarizes the availability of visas as of November. The availability changes monthly and lets you know when your visa number becomes available. It also gives you an idea of the length of time you may have to wait if you have not already applied for a visa.
The Federal Government’s inability to create a budget has led to a streamlined Federal system during the past two weeks that includes dramatic reductions in the productivity of the Immigration Courts. The Immigration Court in Orlando is currently working with a skeleton crew. Only one Immigration Judge is currently hearing cases. Those cases consist solely of detained immigrants in removal proceedings. All other cases have been delayed until Congress resolves the issue.
Those individuals who have removal hearings pending or have recently received a Notice To Appear will not see any action on their cases until this issue has been resolved by Congress. If you have received a Notice to Appear, you can check to see if a Master Calendar Hearing has been scheduled in your case by calling 1-800-898-7180. This automated system will prompt you for your A number. If you have a pending court date, the system will give you the place, judge, date and time. If your Notice to Appear has not been filed with the Immigration Court yet, you will not appear in the system.
I often get calls from people who are not U.S. citizens, and who have pled guilty or no contest to a criminal charge. Unfortunately, for many of these people, it is too late to do anything about the immigration consequences of the criminal conviction. In the State of Florida, there are deadlines for going back and challenging a previous criminal conviction. So, for example, if you pled guilty four years ago to a domestic battery, and now you want to go visit your family in Germany, upon reentry to the United States, you would likely be placed in deportation proceedings, because a domestic violence conviction makes you inadmissible and deportable.
Now, you may tell me that your criminal lawyer did not properly advise you that a domestic battery conviction, or even a withhold of adjudication, would result in you being inadmissible and deportable. If that prior conviction was within the last two years, you may be able to go back and reopen your criminal case. However, if it is more than two years old, the law in the State of Florida would not allow you to challenge the prior conviction on the grounds that you were not properly advised of the immigration consequences.
Criminal convictions have serious and long lasting immigration consequences. Whether you are here without any lawful status, or whether you have had a greencard for decades, even a very old and minor criminal conviction can make you deportable. If you have any (and I mean any) criminal charge at any time in the past, it is extremely important to consult an immigration attorney before you leave the country or have any contact with any immigration official (i.e. USCIS, ICE, CBP).
So, your loved one has been arrested and for a criminal charge and ICE has placed a detainer on him. What happens now? Well, the immigration case will not start until the criminal case is over. ICE simply places a detainer on the individual, which means that once the criminal case is over, ICE will be notified by the authorities that the individual is about to be released. ICE then has 48 business hours to take the individual into ICE custody for the immigration case. (This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do anything until after the criminal case is over. Often the immigration case will be concluded in a very short time period, so it may be important to start retrieving important documents, information, and evidence well before the immigration case starts).
Once the criminal case is over, ICE will visit the individual and issue that person a Notice To Appear (NTA). An NTA will notify the individual of the allegations and charges related to the immigration case. The individual will then go before an Immigration Judge for a Master Calendar Hearing. At that Master Calendar Hearing, the Immigration Judge will ask the individual whether he admits or denies the allegations and whether he admits or concedes the charges. If the individual admits all allegations and charges, the Immigration Judge will find the individual removable/deportable. The Immigration Judge will then ask the individual if they are going to file for any forms of relief. For example, the individual may be eligible for Cancellation of Removal, Withholding of Removal, Convention Against Torture relief, Asylum, certain waivers, or other forms of relief. The individual will then have the burden to prove that he or she is eligible for the form of relief by filing a complete application along with documentary evidence. After the application is filed, the individual will have an Individual Hearing, which is much like a bench trial, in front of the Immigration Judge. At the conclusion of the Individual Hearing, either at that hearing or at a subsequent hearing, the Immigration Judge will render a decision on whether the individual is granted the form of relief.
Regardless of the Immigration Judge’s decision, the individual may have further options. For example, if the Immigration Judge orders the individual removed from the United States and denies all forms of relief, the individual can appeal the Immigration Judge’s decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The individual also may file for a Stay of Removal.
One of the common mistakes I see lawful permanent residents make is applying for naturalization when they have a criminal conviction without consulting with an immigration attorney. If that prior conviction is a deportable offense, USCIS can, and often will, issue a Notice To Appear to the applicant and place the applicant in removal proceedings. Even if USCIS does not place the applicant in removal proceedings, the naturalization application may be denied based on a finding that the applicant lacks “good moral character.”
In order to be eligible for Naturalization, an applicant must establish to USCIS that he or she has “good moral character” for a statutory period of time. For most people, that statutory period will be five years. For those applying for naturalization based on their marriage to a U.S. Citizen, the statutory period is three years. There are some exceptions to these statutory periods that are beyond the scope of this blog.
The Immigration and Nationality Act proscribes certain automatic bars to establishing “good moral character.” This means that if you fall under any of the automatic bar categories, you cannot establish good moral character and your naturalization application will be denied. You would have to reapply after the statutory period ran.
As expected, an extremely comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed in the Senate has gained little steam in the House of Representatives. Speaker of the House, John Boehner, has gone on record stating that the immigration bill is not a top priority. Boehner’s statements seem out of touch with millions of immigrants and U.S. Citizens, who would be directly affected by the new legislation.
The current law is particularly harsh when it comes to many children and young adults. Take, for example, a 21 year old girl who was brought to the United States by her mother, without documentation, when she was 3 years old. Her mother married a U.S. Citizen. She has assimilated fully into the American culture. All of her friends are U.S. Citizens. She considers herself an American and everyone that knows her considers her an American. However, she is not an American. In the eyes of the law, she is an illegal immigrant. She is subject to deportation to a country that she knows nothing about.
The new immigration bill will not solve all the problems, but there is a humanitarian effort to ameliorate some of these hardships on children and young adults who have very little, if any, culpability. The Dream Act, and provisions in the the proposed legislation, take a step in the direction of recognizing the difference between an adult who entered the country without authorization versus a child that was brought into the country without the ability to refuse.
The landmark immigration bill resting in the Senate has been withstanding the brunt of proposed amendments which would essentially water down the legislation and negatively effect countless people living in the United States. Republican senators have made an effort to further tie undocumented individuals ability to obtain registered status to the success of controlling the border. These senators don’t want undocumented individuals who are already in the United States to obtain legal status until the border is secure. In theory, this position may seem reasonable. However, the viability of the border security efforts may be unattainable or may take years to accomplish, thus making the registered provisional status a moot point.
A group of eight senators – four Republicans and four Democrats have held firm in their resistance to such amendments. The effectiveness of the bill as it stands now is certainly open to debate. Critics believe that the legislation would be difficult, if not impossible to implement. Some believe that the agencies that execute the legislation (i.e. USCIS, ICE) may not implement the procedures according to the spirit of the legislation. It remains to be seen whether the bill will pass, in what form it will be passed, and how the changes will be implemented by the troops on the ground. Stay tuned.
Read more about the proposed amendments to the bill here.
The Legislature has still been unable to pass an immigration reform bill despite an extensive bipartisan proposal. House Speaker John Boehner voiced his concerns about the lack of progress in enacting an immigration reform bill. The proposed bill in the Senate would have both positive and negative implications for immigrants.
While a group of Senate leaders prepared a proposed bill after months of hard work, a similar group of House leaders have been unable to reach a compromise for four years. There is no indication on how long it will take for the sides to reach an agreement or whether any compromise would be accepted by the legislature as a whole.
Read more here: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/05/16/boehner-concerned-about-slow-pace-of-immigration-in-house/
The budget crisis in the Federal Government has led to a process known as sequestration. The government has furloughed government employees and otherwise reduced spending on governmental entities. One area where sequestration has been felt is in immigration proceedings. Many immigrants who were previously detained during their immigration proceedings have been and will be released from custody to save the Federal Government money.
The released individuals will still be subject to conditions of release and will have to check in with DHS (Department of Homeland Security) as a condition of their release. From a cost effective standpoint, it costs the federal government $186 per day to detain an immigrant. In comparison, it costs between 30 cents to $14 per day to release them on bond.
It remains to be seen how many more immigrants will be released from custody on conditions of bond. It also remains to be seen how sequestration will affect the backlog of cases in other immigration areas.
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that Florida Statute 843.01, Resisting an Officer With Violence, is a crime involving moral turpitude for immigration purposes. In Cano vs. U.S. Attorney General, the Eleventh Circuit determined that because the statute in its entirety is a general intent crime, and because the statute requires more than just a mere touching, but an act of intentional violence, the statute falls under the umbrella of crimes deemed to be crimes involving moral turpitude.
The significance of this decision is that an immigrant who pleads guilty to resisting an officer with violence in the State of Florida will be convicted, whether he or she receives a withhold or not, for immigration purposes of a crime involving moral turpitude. That conviction may be the basis for inadmissibility or deportability and could lead to denial of immigration benefits, a green card, denial or reentry into the country or deportation.
This is just one of many criminal convictions that can have dramatic consequences for non-U.S. citizens. Never plead guilty or no contest to a criminal charge without first seeking the advice of an experience immigration attorney.
Florida Immigration Lawyer Blog
