72 Indonesians in New Jersey Fear Deportation

The New York Times reported yesterday that a community of 72 Indonesians living in central New Jersey for the past two years have been ordered to leave the United States by the Department of Homeland Security. Many of the Indonesians had escaped their homeland because of religious persecution. 


The order comes as a surprise to immigration advocates. Earlier this year, the Obama administration shifted its immigration enforcement plan to focus on deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records. The Department of Homeland Security issued a directive in June, 2011, that urged immigration agents and lawyers to use prosecutorial discretion in handling deportation cases. The report explained that prosecutorial discretion includes consideration of a variety of factors, such as the duration of time an undocumented immigrant has lived in the United States and whether the undocumented immigrant was brought here as a child. 


Most of the Indonesians that are seeking help from supporters have been living in the United States for about 10 years, have American-born children, are employed, and have no criminal records - meeting many of the criteria necessary for relief provided by the new prosecutorial discretion directive. 


Two members of the House of Representatives have plans to submit a bill to provide relief for the Indonesians who are facing deportation by "allow[ing] certain Indonesians who fled persecution in their homeland between 1997 and 2002 to resubmit asylum claims that had been denied because they missed a one-year filing deadline." 


Glickman Turley's experienced attorneys represent individuals on a wide range of immigration matters, as well as other legal issues. Please contact our attorneys if you wish to discuss representation on immigration matters, real estate purchase and sales, condominium associations, criminal defense, non-profit law, civil litigation, business litigation, business law, probate matters including wills, powers of attorney, health care proxy, same-sex parent adoptions, guardianships, animal law, or LGBT legal matters.

Massachusetts Sues 5 Banks Over Foreclosures

Massachusetts filed a suit against 5 major banks on December 1, 2011, over unfair and deceptive foreclosure practices. The Associated Press reported that  Attorney General Martha Coakley filed the suit against Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase &Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc., and GMAC. The complaint named Mortgage Electronic Registration System., Inc. (MERS) and its parent company for failure to register legal transfers properly, which led to inaccuracies in Massachusetts' public land recording system. 


The article reported that Coakley announced at a press conference that "We have two clear goals with this lawsuit - one is to provide for real accountability for the role the banks have played in unlawful and illegal foreclosures, and secondly to provide for real and enforceable relief for the harm that the misconduct has caused." 


There had been settlement talks between the major banks and all 50 states that lingered for over a year following the housing crisis. The lawsuit filed by Attorney General Coakley will expose the banks to greater scrutiny by the court. One day after the suit was filed, GMAC Mortgage said it will cease to purchase new mortgage loans in Massachusetts but will honor its contractual obligations as a servicer and continue to serve existing customers.  


Glickman Turley's experienced attorneys represent individuals on a wide range of immigration matters, as well as other legal issues. Please contact our attorneys if you wish to discuss representation on immigration matters, real estate purchase and sales, condominium associations, criminal defense, non-profit law, civil litigation, business litigation, business law, probate matters including wills, powers of attorney, health care proxy, same-sex parent adoptions, guardianships, animal law, or LGBT legal matters.

The Credibility of Memory in Court

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments last month about the reliability of witness testimony in case where a New Hampshire man was convicted of theft. The most persuasive evidence in that trial was an eyewitness account of a woman who claimed she saw the man from a distance at night. While the Court showed skepticism about whether there needs to be an additional safeguard in the law addressing the unreliability of witness testimony, a lawyer for the New Hampshire man argued that eyewitness testimony contributes to 75 percent of wrongful convictions.

Indeed, scientific research on the reliability of memory and its role in the criminal justice system has shown that witness testimony should be viewed as a general sketch of a story instead of a precise recording of events, according to a report in The New York Times. Studies conducted over 20 years support the notion that instead of serving as "the centerpiece of prosecution," eyewitness testimony needs to be handled with "the same fragility and vulnerability to contamination," in order to make such testimony more reliable in court. 

Some researchers said that witnesses are being asked questions by police and in courtrooms that are not possible to answer with complete accuracy because human brains "are not wired to retain every facet of an event." Even in crimes involving weapons, witnesses tend to focus closely on the weapon, remembering those details with accuracy, but will not notice other details present during the event. 

Many wrongful convictions are based on suspect lineups. Gary Wells, a psychology professor at Iowa State University, and his team researched whether a witness is likely to select accurately a suspect from a traditional lineup versus a lineup where various suspects are shown to the witness in sequential order. Dr. Wells' report showed that a traditional lineup is less accurate because "if the real perpetrator is not in there, there is still someone who looks more like him than the others," according to the article. 

Glickman Turley's experienced attorneys represent individuals on a wide range of immigration matters, as well as other legal issues. Please contact our attorneys if you wish to discuss representation on immigration matters, real estate purchase and sales, condominium associations, criminal defense, non-profit law, civil litigation, business litigation, business law, probate matters including wills, powers of attorney, health care proxy, same-sex parent adoptions, guardianships, animal law, or LGBT legal matters.

A Shift Toward Prioritizing Deportation Cases

Two Brazilian students in Boston received a stay of deportation proceedings, a sign that the Obama administration has been implementing a federal directive issued back in June, 2011, according to a report in The Boston Globe.


The director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement urged federal immigration officials to "regularly" use their discretion to keep low-priority deportation cases, such as those involving students, the elderly, and other immigrants, from clogging up the system. The goal of the directive is to give the system an opportunity to deport convicted criminals and other high-priority cases more efficiently. 


Homeland Security announced that immigration agents and prosecutors would undergo prosecutorial discretion training by January, 13, 2012. 


The Boston Globe reported that "there are approximately 300,000 cases pending in immigration court nationwide and more than 8,000 in the Boston court, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University." 


Glickman Turley's experienced attorneys represent individuals on a wide range of immigration matters, as well as other legal issues. Please contact our attorneys if you wish to discuss representation on immigration matters, real estate purchase and sales, condominium associations, criminal defense, non-profit law, civil litigation, business litigation, business law, probate matters including wills, powers of attorney, health care proxy, same-sex parent adoptions, guardianships, animal law, or LGBT legal matters.

House Bill Addresses Employment Visa Backlog

The House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday that would modify the immigration system to allow more highly skilled immigrants to obtain permanent resident visas. The goal is to reduce visa backlogs where highly skilled employees who were already approved for legal permanent resident status, primarily from India and China, would then face another 70 years of waiting in order to receive their documentation.

Currently, there are limits on the number of employment-based green cards available annually to each country.
The highly skilled immigrants work primarily for employers in the areas of science, technology, and engineering, and lived in the United States on temporary visas.

Many of these skilled foreign workers are sent from China and India, and are forced to wait many years for their green cards because of the country limit requirement. The bill would eliminate the country limits after a three-year transition period, allowing all employment-based green cards to be issued on a first-come, first-served basis, according to a report from The New York Times. However, the bill does not address the issue of undocumented immigrants in the United States.

 The bill is expected to pass in the Senate.


Glickman Turley's experienced attorneys represent individuals on a wide range of immigration matters, as well as other legal issues. Please contact our attorneys if you wish to discuss representation on immigration matters, real estate purchase and sales, condominium associations, criminal defense, non-profit law, civil litigation, business litigation, business law, probate matters including wills, powers of attorney, health care proxy, same-sex parent adoptions, guardianships, animal law, or LGBT legal matters.

Gov. Deval Patrick Signed Transgender Equal Rights Bill

Governor Deval Patrick signed the Transgender Equal Rights Bill on November 26, 2011. The new law will provide additional civil rights protections to the transgender community, including protections against hate-crimes. Transgender citizens in Massachusetts will be protected from discrimination in the areas of employment, education, and housing.

There are about 33,000 transgender residents in Massachusetts, according to the Office of the Governor. Massachusetts is the 16th state to designate transgender individuals as a protected class.

Glickman Turley's experienced attorneys represent individuals on a wide range of
immigration matters, as well as other legal issues. Please contact our attorneys if you wish to discuss representation on immigration matters, real estate purchase and sales, condominium associations, criminal defense, non-profit law, civil litigation, business litigation, business law, probate matters including wills, powers of attorney, health care proxy, same-sex parent adoptions, guardianships, animal law, orLGBT legal matters.

53 Immigrants Arrested In Massachusetts

The Boston Globe reported today that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 42 men and 11 women for violating federal immigration laws. Many of the immigrants had serious or violent criminal convictions. The detainees are now in ICE custody, facing deportation proceedings.

The arrests occurred in towns throughout Massachusetts, including: Attleboro, Boston, Brockton, Chelsea, Dorchester, Everett, Fall River, Framingham, Lowell, Lynn, Milford, New Bedford, Peabody, Roxbury, Waltham, and Worcester.