Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(C)  Immigration counsel will generally be interested not only in safe havens that provide strong protection against deportation, but also in legitimate arguments that a given conviction is a safe haven that can fairly be raised in immigration court and on appeal and provide the client with as much as several years of additional residence in the United States before deportation and during which period criminal counsel can attempt to solve the problem in criminal court.  It is not always possible to distinguish between a winning and a losing argument, but immigration lawyers can tolerate this uncertainty better than criminal counsel can.