Deportation is a frightening and highly unpleasant process – but it’s a reality that hundreds of thousands of individuals face every year. So what do you do if you or a loved one is facing deportation?
First, it is critical that you have a lawyer on your team. In the U.S., criminals are entitled to public defenders if they can’t afford an attorney, but immigrants facing deportation don’t have the same rights.
In this blog entry, we’re going to examine the process of deportation, including several ways to fight it. But please understand that this is a complicated legal area and directly consulting a lawyer is important for anyone who receives a notice to appear at removal proceedings.
There are two separate categories that can result in deportation: grounds of inadmissibility and grounds for deportation. Grounds of inadmissibility applies to people seeking to enter the U.S. and includes things such as entering illegally, being likely to become a public charge, having a communicable disease, or having committed fraud in order to gain an immigration benefit.
Grounds for deportation applies to people already living legally in the U.S. It includes a marriage to a U.S. citizen that’s deemed fraudulent; being convicted of certain types of crimes, such as drug offenses, sex offenses, fraud, or aggravated felonies; being a terrorist; or helping smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S.
There are various ways to fight a notice of removal. For people who aren’t in the U.S. legally, there are several possible defenses, including:
1. An undocumented alien can contest the charges of removability. The burden of proof is with the Department of Homeland Security. Undocumented immigrants can request relief from removal in one of many different categories, including asylum and protection under the Convention Against Torture.
2. The status of an undocumented alien can be adjusted because of a change in circumstances, such as marriage to a U.S. citizen.
3. Someone who’s been living illegally in the U.S. for a long time and whose removal would cause “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” for a relative living in the U.S. who is a citizen or green card holder may be eligible for a “non-LPR cancellation of removal.”
4. In some cases, people who arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16 can apply to have deportation delayed for two years.
5. Someone younger than 18 who is a court dependent may qualify for “special immigrant juvenile status.”
6. An application for prosecutorial discretion may be entered. This essentially requests that the court concentrate on more critical cases and ignore the deportation case.
For people living in the U.S. legally, it’s possible to apply for cancellation of removal. A cancellation of removal case will be decided by a judge in Immigration Court. This is a complex subject, and we’ll examine it in depth in future blog entries.
As you can see, there are a wide variety of legal options for individuals facing deportation. If you or a loved one are facing deportation, it’s important that you act quickly. Please contact us today for more information.
English 
Español 
العربية