Asylum and Removal (Deportation) Defense

Asylum

Description
Immigration status sought by a person either entering the U.S. or already physically in the U.S., who has a reasonable fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion; if forced to return to their country of last residence.

Who Is Eligible
Aliens who have remained in the U.S. for less than one year and are part of an eligible Asylum class (i.e. persecuted due to political party, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation group, social group, etc.)

Visa Duration
The asylum status can be held indefinitely. However, the work authorization must be renewed on a yearly basis.

Renewability
The asylum status can be held indefinitely. However, the work authorization must be renewed on a yearly basis.

Family Benefits
Immediate family members may be eligible for asylum status with all its benefits such as work authorization, as long as they have been named in the alien's asylum application; even if any family members are not present in the U.S. at the time the application is filed.

Removal (Deportation) Defense
An order of removal is a decision by an immigration judge that a noncitizen should be deported from, or prohibited admission to, the United States. The immigration judge also must decide any applications for relief from removal that the noncitizen may have filed. Officers of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also may issue removal orders under limited circumstances.

Vigorous representation in removal proceedings is critical because a noncitizen normally receives only one opportunity to prove that he or she should not be removed. Further, the consequences of an order of removal can be severe. The consequences may include banishment from the United States for 5 years to life.

The first question in removal proceedings is usually whether the person is "removable" from the United States. To be removable, the person must not be a citizen of the United States. Sometimes a person can establish citizenship through the complicated laws governing acquisition and derivation of citizenship for persons born outside of the U.S. If the person is not a citizen, then the next determination is whether he or she has done something to merit removal. This is clear where the person is present in the U.S. without inspection and admission, but often can be contested where the government previously admitted the person to the U.S. as a permanent resident or in some other status.

Common ways to lose permanent resident status include conviction of a crime, fraud in the permanent residence application, absence from the United States for lengthy periods (abandonment of residence), and helping a noncitizen enter illegally (alien smuggling). These issues tend to arise at inspection upon return to the U.S. from abroad, during a naturalization examination, or when the government encounters the noncitizen in jail or prison.

The immigration laws regarding removability for conviction of a crime are particularly complex. These laws often expand along with the state penal laws. Also, the consequences of a conviction often depend upon whether the crime comes within the grounds of inadmissibility, the grounds of deportability, or the aggravated felony definition.

Once the issue of removability has been settled, the question becomes whether the noncitizen is eligible for and deserving of relief from removal. Those forms of relief include applications for asylum, withholding of removal, Convention Against Torture relief, cancellation of removal, adjustment of status, discretionary waivers, etc.