Matthew — Page 24

Motion to Reopen Granted by the Board!

June 21, 2012 by Matthew

Today, I received an order from the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) granting a motion to reopen that I filed on behalf of one of my clients. My client had been ordered deported in 2006. He lost his asylum case. He was found to have suffered past persecution, but was denied because the Immigration Judge found that he could internally relocate in his country and be safe.

My client came to me after he had received a notice to surrender to the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) for his deportation. When he consulted with me, I remembered that a few weeks earlier, the BIA had rendered a precedent decision called Matter of L-S-, 25 I. & N. Dec. 705 (BIA 2012). In Matter of L-S-, the Board held that individuals who suffer past persecution, but are denied asylum, may be considered for humanitarian asylum, if they can show “other serious harm.” When I met with my client for the first time, it occurred to me that he could seek reopening of his case based upon this new decision. Interestingly, my client has consulted with several other immigration attorneys in New York City and none of them had thought to do this. The best idea that one of them could come up with was filing a request for deferred action and this immigration lawyer charged him $200 for a consultation!

I filed the motion to reopen and went with my client to the surrender with ICE. I convinced his deportation officer not to detain him and put him on supervised release pending the outcome of the motion to reopen. Now that the motion to reopen has been granted, my client will be back before the Immigration Judge, and hopefully, will eventually receive humanitarian asylum. His case had been over for almost six years and now he might be able to stay in the United States forever.

Government Links About the Deferred Action Process for Young People Who are Low Enforcement Priorities

June 19, 2012 by Matthew

Since Friday, the Government has put up several web pages with information about the “deferred action process for young people who are low enforcement priorities.” This is what the Government is referring to the program announced by President Obama on Friday. Most people are referring to it as Deferred Action for DREAMers or some variation thereof.

Here is the original announcement from Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

Here is a link to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s (CIS) page on Deferred Action for DREAMers. The CIS page indicates that applications for Deferred Action for DREAMers are not being accepted until sometime after 60 days from the announcement on June 15, 2012.

Here is a link to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement page on Deferred Action for DREAMers. This page has a very detailed frequently asked questions section.

I Am Going to Wait to Celebrate

June 19, 2012 by Matthew

Now that I’m back from the AILA National Conference, I thought I would comment about President Obama’s announcement that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be granting deferred action to certain non-citizens that would fall under the DREAM Act. It was really amazing to be at the AILA National Conference when the announcement was made. Being around so many immigration lawyers as the news was announced made it seem like there was electricity in the air. Everyone around me was excited and happy. Now I’m going to be the spoiled sport who complains . . .

For people who are in removal proceedings and have final orders of removal that qualify for deferred action, this will be good. For people who are not yet in proceedings, I am skeptical. It has been announced that they do not yet have a procedure for these people to apply for deferred action. It has been said that it will take 60 days for a procedure to be created. On April 2, 2012, it was announced that Citizenship Immigration Service (CIS) was going to accept waivers of unlawful presence from within the United States. Soon after, it was announced that CIS was not yet accepting these waivers and that they would not be accepted until regulations were promulgated. We’re still waiting for the regulations. About a year ago, it was announced that ICE would review files of removal cases for administrative closure as part of efforts to exercise prosecutorial discretion and focus on removing criminal aliens and aliens that pose a danger to the national security of the United States. Recently, it was announced that of 288,361 cases reviewed, only 4,403 cases had received administrative closure.

I have another reason to be skeptical. June is almost over. If DHS takes 60 days to create rules on accepting deferred actions requests for DREAMers, that means that they won’t be accepting these applications until about August 15, 2012. The election is November 8, 2012. If Obama is not re-elected, it does not appear that Romney will continue with this program. If Romney is elected president, then all of the people that are not currently in removal proceedings who apply for this new program will be bringing themselves to the attention of the Government. My advice for anyone who is not yet in removal proceedings that would benefit from this new policy is to wait until after the election to apply.