A big obstacle in the road of voluntary departure.

Sunday, June 30th, 2013

Sometimes I am kind of naive. Having just returned from a conference of immigration lawyers, I expected lots of discussion and commentary on some recent 9th Circuit cases. Instead, I heard nothing. I will address them here. Today, Corro-Barragan v. Holder,  decided on June 10, 2013. The case concerns voluntary departure. Voluntary departure is a common relief in removal proceedings. If one is granted voluntary departure, the person is allowed to leave the United States in lieu of being removed….

FedEx, another institution you relied on, that you should not.

Saturday, June 22nd, 2013

There were once things you could depend on. Your standard of living will be higher than your parents. New TV shows would come out in September. You’ll be taxed. You’ll die. Twinkies. Google will not be evil. FedEx will deliver your package when they say. It turns out, for the premium one pays to FedEx for next day delivery, there is little satisfaction your package will get there when they say. One study puts it at a 88 percent on…

What if he was a foreigner?

Sunday, March 17th, 2013

Trey Anastasio Trey Anastasio of the rock group Phish was arrested in December 2006 in Whitehall, New York, for illegally possessing hydrocodone, Percocet and Xanax. He went through drug court and afterwards his conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor. A conviction for possessing drugs is a deportable offense and also subjects one to mandatory detention while the case is pending. Being a drug addict or abuser is also a grounds of deportability and a ground of removability  which requires detention while…

When brothers don’t talk

Saturday, February 16th, 2013

Senator Joseph Lieberman’s great legacy, besides giving Jon Stewart years of material, is his efforts to create the gargantuan Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and split the former Immigration and Naturalization Service into three separate agencies, Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The breakdown in the agencies’ missions, simply put, is USCIS adjudicates benefits like temporary and permanent residence statuses and citizenship determinations, CBP polices the borders and internal checkpoints,…