Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(A)  Necessary Information.  Before consulting immigration counsel, criminal counsel should have available the following:

                (1)  A completed Basic Immigration Status Questionnaire, or its equivalent.  See Appendix A, infra.  (This contains the information immigration counsel will need to diagnose the situation.)

                (2)  The charges and police reports from the current criminal case.

                (3)  Complete criminal history records from all jurisdictions in which the client has prior convictions that may trigger adverse immigration consequences.

                (4)  For each significant prior conviction, the “record of conviction” from which the immigration consequences of the conviction will be determined.  This includes (a) the charge to which a plea was entered, (b) a reporter’s transcript of the plea hearing, (c) the judgment, and (d) a reporter’s transcript of the sentence hearing(s).  In addition, it is often valuable to have available (e) the police reports, and (f) the probation reports.