April.02.2013
Our litigation team in New York helped free an immigration client from detention through swift and effective advocacy, and then worked with attorneys at the Legal Aid Society to argue and persuade a federal immigration judge to terminate the immigration proceedings against the client because the relatively minor offenses he was convicted of several years ago did not rise to the level of deportable offenses.
The client is a 30-year-old lawful permanent resident from the Dominican Republic, who first arrived in the United States on a visa in 1982 at the age of one. The client's mother is a naturalized U.S. citizen, and his now 11-year-old daughter is a U.S. citizen by birth. The client received his high school diploma, earned college credits and has also had a productive work history in New York, including paying taxes.
In October 2012, the client was arrested by immigration officials at his home in New York based on relatively old criminal convictions. The client's immigration detention prevented his attorneys from being able to fully and effectively represent his interests and, more importantly, eliminated one of the cornerstones from his daughter's life (a Type 1 diabetic requiring regular care). The government took the position that the client was subject to mandatory detention. After receiving the case file, Zachary Proulx and Caitlin McCullough, with guidance from Peter Bicks and a Legal Aid immigration attorney, prepared a persuasive request seeking the client's release from detention pending the disposition of the client's immigration case. After more than three weeks of advocacy, Zach and Caitlin were able to convince federal immigration officials to release our client on his own recognizance, without filing a federal petition seeking that same relief—truly an unusual result.
Toi Frederick then began working with an immigration attorney from Legal Aid to represent the client in his immigration case. Toi drafted and argued a complicated motion seeking to have the Court terminate the removal proceedings commenced against the client by the Department of Homeland Security on the ground that the four crimes he had been convicted of were not removable offenses allowing the government to deport the client. The Immigration Judge granted the client's motion, and he is now free of any threat of deportation and can remain with his family in New York.