Safe Havens

(A)  The DHS Does Not File Charges.  The client can win safe haven before the Department of Homeland Security, in the sense that the agency is convinced not to file a Notice to Appear alleging that the client is deportable in the first place.  In general, it will take a combination of factors to persuade the DHS not to file charges: a very strong argument that the disposition does not fall within any ground of deportation, plus very favorable equities or factors about the offense or the client that convince the agents not to wish the client ill.  The DHS has proven willing in many cases to file bogus deportation charges, that trigger mandatory detention, apparently to inflict mandatory detention on the client even when it knows or should know the chances of obtaining a deportation order are small or even nonexistent.  Unfortunately, this tendency has been increasing.