Criminal Defense of Immigrants

Part I of this work takes a criminal case chronologically, and devotes considerable attention to the interplay of criminal and immigration law at each stage.  For example, the chapter on detention discusses the difficult questions of when and how to seek release of a client from criminal custody when there is or may be an immigration hold placed against him or her.  See Chapter 6, infra.  The chapter on investigation discusses how to obtain the information necessary not only to defend the client against the criminal penalties of an offense, but also against the immigration penalties.  See Chapter 3, infra.  Criminal counsel needs a great deal of information on the immigration threats against the client, so as to be able to avoid them in criminal court when the situation is more fluid than it will later prove in immigration court after the criminal conviction has congealed.  Immigration counsel needs information on the client's predicament in criminal court, so as to ascertain the exact immigration consequences of the criminal case and to advise criminal counsel on how to avoid them by taking certain actions in criminal court.

                Part II of this work describes the removal process a client with criminal issues will face once the criminal case has been concluded.  It also describes the various crime-related grounds of deportation and inadmissibility, so both criminal and immigration counsel will be able to avoid triggering them.