I recently posted a blog about lawsuits filed in San Francisco  against unlicensed California lawyer Martin Resendez Guajardo and San Diego-based attorney Christopher Stender. One lawsuit was a class action suit filed by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and the other a civil suit filed by the City of San Francisco.

According to docket reports, on December 14, 2010, Messrs. Guajardo and Stender removed the case to the federal court.  Removal jurisdiction permits a defendant to force the plaintiff to litigate an action in federal court rather than the state court the plaintiff chose. Authority to do this is found generally at 28 U.S.C. § 1441  though there are other removal statutes found in Title 28 (Judiciary and Judicia Procedure) of the United States Code. (more…)

Nearly a year ago, I posted two blogs, this and this, about a case from the Board of Immigration Appeals, Matter of Almanza-Arenas, which reversed precedent in the Ninth Circuit regarding showing eligibility for Cancellation of Removal for Certain Permanent Residents, INA § 240A(a). This Cancellation of Removal, there are two others, allows permanent residents to keep their permanent residence status after committing removable offenses or engaging in conduct that renders one removable. To be eligible, an alien must have at least seven years of residence in the United States after a lawful admission, be a permanent resident for at least five years, and not be an aggravated felon.

Matter of Almanza-Arenas relates to the aggravated felony element of eligibility for Cancellation. Some criminal statutes criminalize more than one thing. These are called divisible statutes. In these statutes, some of these crimes are aggravated felonies and some are not. The Ninth Circuit ruled in 2007 in Sandoval-Lua v. Gonzales,  that if the record of conviction – the documents that the criminal court relied on and itself created in making the ruling of guilt – was ambiguous as to whether the crime was an aggravated felony, then the crime was not an aggravated felony. The logic being that there are two states of nature – being an aggravated felon or not being an aggravated felon. If you cannot be shown to be one, then you are not one. (more…)

Instead of a written post today, I made a movie — a dramatization of a conversation I must have at least five times a week. I hope it is informative.

A disappointing immigration consultation