quick reference chart and notes for determining immigration - ILRC
quick reference chart and notes for determining immigration - ILRC
quick reference chart and notes for determining immigration - ILRC
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Cali<strong>for</strong>nia Quick Reference Chart <strong>and</strong> Notes<br />
February 2010<br />
Introduction: Why Bother? What to Do? 2<br />
[T]he procession moved on, three of the soldiers remaining behind to execute the<br />
un<strong>for</strong>tunate gardeners, who ran to Alice <strong>for</strong> protection. 'You shan't be beheaded!' said<br />
Alice, <strong>and</strong> she put them into a large flower-pot that stood near. The three soldiers<br />
w<strong>and</strong>ered about <strong>for</strong> a minute or two, looking <strong>for</strong> them, <strong>and</strong> then quietly marched off after<br />
the others.<br />
--- Alice in Wonderl<strong>and</strong>, Lewis Carroll<br />
The <strong>immigration</strong> consequences of a criminal conviction can be barbaric, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
procedure would make Alice (or Kafka) feel at home. In the majority of the cases, the one<br />
person who can st<strong>and</strong> between the immigrant <strong>and</strong> these consequences is you, the criminal<br />
defense practitioner.<br />
How bad could it be? Approximately one in six Cali<strong>for</strong>nia criminal defendants is a<br />
noncitizen. 3 Any noncitizen, including a lawful permanent resident (“green card” holder) is<br />
vulnerable to “removal” (deportation), if he or she is convicted of the wrong offense.<br />
Once there is an adverse conviction, the <strong>immigration</strong> system works to <strong>for</strong>ce the person to<br />
accept removal. If a noncitizen attempts to contest being removed based on a conviction, in most<br />
cases she or he will be detained <strong>for</strong> the duration of the removal proceedings including through<br />
federal appeals -- from several months to a few years. Typically the person will be transferred to<br />
an isolated <strong>immigration</strong> detention facility hundreds of miles from the person’s home (from<br />
Cali<strong>for</strong>nia, often to Arizona or outside the Ninth Circuit). 4 Documented conditions at these<br />
facilities include insufficient food, exposure to extreme heat or cold, <strong>and</strong> lack of medical<br />
attention in some cases leading to preventable fatalities. The removal case may be conducted by<br />
video be<strong>for</strong>e a judge in another city or state, often using incompetent translators. The effect is to<br />
coerce many detainees to ab<strong>and</strong>on valid legal appeals <strong>and</strong> request their own deportation.<br />
Un<strong>for</strong>tunately, this is the good scenario. In “administrative removal proceedings,” any<br />
noncitizen who is not a lawful permanent resident <strong>and</strong> who is charged with having been<br />
convicted of an aggravated felony will be ordered removed in a proceeding that has less due<br />
2 Some of this introduction draws from the writings of Jonathan Moore of the Washington Defender Association, a<br />
tireless <strong>and</strong> poetic advocate.<br />
3<br />
This is an approximation. The 2000 <strong>and</strong> 2005 census reports estimate that one in four persons residing in<br />
Cali<strong>for</strong>nia is <strong>for</strong>eign-born. See, e.g., See “Profile of the Foreign-Born Population of the United States, 2000,” from<br />
the U.S. Census Bureau’s reports. www.census.gov. Up to one third of these may have become U.S. citizens,<br />
which leaves approximately one in six residents as noncitizens. The non-citizen population is proportionally<br />
represented as criminal defendants. See Rumbaud <strong>and</strong> Ewing, “The Myth of Immigrant Criminality,”<br />
http://www.american<strong>immigration</strong>council.org/special-reports/myth-immigrant-criminality-<strong>and</strong>-paradox-assimilation.<br />
4 In 2009 over 50% of detainees were transferred to a new facility, over 25% were transferred multiple times. For<br />
more statistics on <strong>immigration</strong> detention go to http://www.hrw.org/en/node/86789 <strong>and</strong><br />
http://trac.syr.edu/<strong>immigration</strong>/reports/220/.<br />
Immigrant Legal Resource Center N-5