Criminal Defense of Immigrants
§ 2.15 III. If We Don't Do It in Criminal Court, Very Often No 1 Can, and It's Difficult or Impossible to Recover From a Mistake
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Many of us believe – accurately enough – that we are not immigration lawyers and do not know immigration law. We limit our focus to the criminal case, and tell the client so. Then, when the criminal case is over, we send the clients on their way, informing them that they need to consult an immigration lawyer to try to avoid deportation. The problem with this approach is that certain criminal convictions dictate immigration disaster. In those cases, there is nothing the immigration lawyer can do in immigration court to defend the client against deportation. The situation becomes irreversible once the deportable plea is entered or sentence is imposed. If we don’t solve the problem at its source – in criminal court – the damage may be irrevocable.
