December 12, 2011 - Glickman Turley prevailed in Worcester District Court on a motion for a new trial based upon the failure of the trial counsel to advise his client of the serious consequences of his agreement to a continued without a finding disposition. The defendant was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon (an air gun) and agreed to a continuance without a finding with a sentence of probation. His trial attorney did not tell him that the plea deal would be considered a conviction of a crime of moral turpitude subjecting the immigrant to deportation and removal from the United States. Based upon the Supreme Court Padilla case and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Clarke case, the Judge determined that by failing to fully explain the immigration consequences, the trial counsel's representation was substandard and that the defendant had demonstrated that he was prejudiced by the substandard representation. The Judge allowed the motion for a new trial and restored the case to the court docket.

October 5, 2011 - Cancellation of Removal of Non-LPR (Non Lawful Permanent Residents)

Glickman Turley LLP attorneys recently won two applications for cancellation of removal of non-LPR residents pursuant to INA Sec. 240A(b).

In one case, our attorneys demonstrated that our client's young U.S.
citizen children would suffer "exceptional and extremely unusual"
hardship if their father were deported back to his native Portugal. The client's sons were pre-school children who suffered medical issues at birth that continued throughout their lives. The children currently suffered from asthma and learning disabilities.

In another recent case, our attorneys represented a woman who had suffered decades of abuse at the hands of her father. Because he was a U.S. citizen, she qualified for special-rule cancellation, which provides green cards to victims of domestic violence from U.S. citizen and LPR spouses, parents and children. The applicant needs to have lived in the U.S. for three years. Special-rule cancellation of removal provides relief to abused immigrants in ways not available through affirmative VAWA self-petitions to USCIS. In cases of special-rule cancellation for children of abusive LPR parents, cancellation immediately grants LPR status, as compared to VAWA self-petitions that require the LPR children to wait for green cards pursuant to LPR children priority-date waitlists. In cases of special-rule cancellation of removal for abused spouses, the applicant's marriage to the abuser could have ended more than two years prior to the application for relief. This is an important distinction from VAWA self-petitions where the self-petition must be filed within two years of the divorce.

October 5, 2011 - Prosecutorial Discretion

Glickman Turley LLP attorneys' advocacy resulted in approvals of requests to exercise prosecutorial discretion to terminate removal / deportation proceedings in the Boston Immigration Court. Our attorneys filed compelling petitions to the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) setting forth reasons why particular clients should not be in removal proceedings. ICE attorneys responded favorably to our requests within two weeks.

September 30, 2011 - Adjustment of Status for "EWI" Salvadoran with TPS

Glickman Turley LLP successfully represented a Salvadoran man who first entered the U.S. without a visa (also known as "entered without inspection" or "EWI"). Two years ago, the client traveled to El Salvador pursuant to "advance parole" issued by USCIS in order to attend to a family emergency in his home country. When he returned to the U.S., he was paroled into to the U.S. This parole cured his "EWI" problem, making him eligible to adjust status through his U.S. citizen wife. He nonetheless required an I-601 Application for Waiver of Inadmissibility to overcome the 10-year bar for having been present from the U.S.
without authorization for over one year. Glickman Turley LLP prepared a compelling waiver application, demonstrating clear "extreme hardship" to his U.S. citizen wife who was pregnant and infant U.S. citizen son. The wife suffers medical issues including post-partum depression and the infant suffered various medical complications resulting from pre-mature birth and also suffers from asthma.

September 28, 2011 - Crimes and Deportation/Removal

Every day, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) devotes more resources to arresting and deporting immigrants (aka aliens) with criminal records and convictions. Some immigrants with criminal convictions (including some crimes involving moral turpitude) have defenses to deportation/removal. Others, such as those convicted of aggravated felonies, have little or no relief, except protection under the convention against torture. Even "green card holders" (lawful permament residents) can be deported for criminal convictions. See a recent Boston Globe article about 111 arrests of "criminal aliens" in New England.

September 28, 2011 - Supreme Court to Decide Whether Children Can Count Parents' Time in the US in Immigration Court

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether immigrant children can count the time that their parents were in the United States to establish the residency requirements to obtain relief from deportation in Immigration Court. Legal permanent residents in deportation proceedings generally must establish seven years residence before the Immigration Court proceedings commenced to be eligible for relief from deportation. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (California and the Northwest) has ruled that the time that an immigrant child's parents have been residents in the United States can be counted in determining the length of stay for the child's legal status. The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (Massachusetts and New England) has not ruled on this question. The Supreme Court will hear an appeal from the Attorney General from the Ninth Circuit's decision. If upheld, some children of legal permanent residents will be eligible to remain in the United States who would otherwise be liable for deportation.

September 27, 2011 - Congressmembers Urge Immigration Officials to Consider LGBT Family Ties in Deportation Cases

As reported by Immigration Equality (immigrationequality.org), some members of Congress urged immigration officials to consider LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transexual) family ties in deportation cases. Under current immigration laws, US citizen and green card holders with same-sex spouses do not have the same right as heterosexual spouses in petitioning for marriage-based visas or other derivative based relief (for example, asylum) or using marital status as a positive equity in deportation/removal cases.

August 15, 2011 - Under a new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") rule, consular processing of family based visa petitions will be filed in the Chicago office of USCIS instead of with the US Consulate where the beneficiary of the petition lives. It is expected to delay the processing of the petitions which were often issued relatively quickly by the Consulates. Some persons living in countries, such as Mexico, El Salvador, Panama, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, India, Ghana, South Africa, China, Thailand, Russia and the Philippines, where USCIS maintains filed offices, may file their I-130 petitions with the field offices in their home country.

July 11, 2011 - The New York Times has reported that officials at the United States Embassy in Mexico City are permitting more Mexicans to obtain visas to visit and work in the United States. As a result, rejections of visa requests has dropped dramatically. Waiting times for visas has also decreased and some H-2B visas are issued on the day of application. Consular Officer McKeon stated that persons who are subject to the 3 or 10 year bar to re-entry because they have previously overstayed their visa may be able to successfully seek permission to re-enter the United States with a waiver. Officer McKeon stated: "It's not easy going through this process and I think people who are willing to go through all of that and risk going back to the United States where they have to pay taxes, and withholding, I think we should look favorably on them. The New York Times article is available at
www.nytimes.com./interactive/2011/07/06/world/americas/immigration.html.

Governor Appoints Turley to Board
Governor Deval Patrick has appointed Attorney Donna M. Turley to the Board of Registration in Veterinary Medicine. She represents the public on a five member board. The other members are veterinarians. The Board of Registration in Veterinary Medicine licenses veterinarians and protects the public by ensuring that veterinarians practice according to the laws of the Commonwealth and established standards and codes of conduct. The Board meets monthly and oversees complaints of professional malpractice and misconduct. Read the Governor's appointment:  

ICE issued new guidelines instructing its agents and attorneys to concentrate on removing immigrants who have serious criminal convictions while expanding the criteria for discretionary dismissal of cases. The guidelines stress that ICE staff should consider deferring removal proceedings and dismissing cases against person who would be eligible
for relief under the proposed DREAM Act. In addition, ICE told its agents and attorneys that they should take into account how long an immigrant has been in the country, whether the immigrant arrived as a child, and whether the immigrant is studying in high school or college. ICE also told staff to give particular care and consideration to veterans, especially if they have fought in combat. If an immigrant in removal proceeding does not have serious criminal convictions, the immigrant or counsel for the immigrant should consider requesting that the Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") trial attorney dismiss the Immigration court proceeding explaining how the person meets the new criteria for discretionary dismissal of case. Read the full text of the ICE Memorandum.