Quotas aren't just for traffic tickets

It's a full house... by law.
Photo credit @ChodHound, Flickr; used under CC License.

A Congressional quota requires that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) keep roughly 34,000 detainees in custody per day -- whether ICE wants to detain that many people, or not. This policy dates from 2006, when some legislators wanted to make sure that the federal government didn't get lazy on enforcing the immigration laws.

Years ago, ICE filled those spots easily, with the huge number of people it caught at border crossings. Now there are fewer people coming over the border, and ICE cannot meet its quota. So the government searches for legally present immigrants who have criminal records, and also focuses on undocumented immigrants taken into custody during traffic stops by local police.

A large number of these people --as many as half of them --will appear before immigration judges and eventually be approved to stay in the United States. In the meantime, however, they have to spend months in costly federal custody. This also feeds the pockets of private prison companies, such as the GEO Group and CCA. These companies, in turn, spend money lobbying Congress on immigration issues.

Immigration advocates point out that other, less costly forms of supervision are available, such as GPS ankle bracelet monitoring. The alternatives cost less than one-tenth of the price of keeping a person in detention, and research shows there is nearly full compliance with them.

While a quota, in theory, may seem like a way to ensure that immigration laws are enforced, in practice it just means that people are locked up unnecessarily.

Read more at the Washington Post.

Budget Cuts and Immigration Detainees

Federal immigration officials have recently released hundreds of detainees from detention centers around the country.  Officials stated that this was done in an effort to save money in light of looming budget cuts.  More releases are still possible depending on the outcome of budget negotiations.  A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) emphasized that the detainees who were released were “noncriminals and other low-risk offenders who do not have serious criminal histories.”  

Officials would not specify exactly how many detainees were released or where they were released from.  Immigrant advocates have reported that detainees were released from detention in New Jersey, Texas, Florida, New Orleans, Alabama, Arizona, Georgia and New York.

The government has not dropped the deportation cases altogether.  The detainees were merely freed on supervised release while their cases are pending.  Under supervised release, defendants in immigration cases will be required to report regularly at a regional immigration office.

You can read more about the releases here.

Prosecutorial Discretion and Same-Sex Relationships

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued a memoranda clarifying one of the factors in its assessment of whether to exercise prosecutorial discretion in a case. The family relationships factor includes "two adults who are in a committed, long-term, same-sex relationship." More specifically, they are relationships where the individuals "are each other's sole domestic partner and intend to remain so indefinitely; are not in a marital or other domestic relationship with anyone else; and typically maintain a common residence and share financial obligations and assets." 

For more information, click here. 

For representation, please contact Glickman Turley LLP at 617-399-7770. 

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, trademark law, probate matters including wills, powers of attorney, health care proxy, same-sex co-parent adoptions, guardianships, animal law, or LGBT legal matters.    

GTLLP Firm News

Glickman Turley successfully obtained an Emergency Stay of Execution of Removal Order for an individual detained by ICE who was en route from Boston to Lousiana to be physically removed to his home country in Central America. We obtained this extraordinary relief pending a Motion to Reopen a removal order issued at the San Antonio Immigration Court in 1999. We obtained this relief through "11th hour" strategizing with co-counsel at Harvard Law School, a country conditions expert, and local attorneys in San Antonio who helped with the emergency filing on the day of the client's expected physical removal from the U.S.

For representation, please contact Glickman Turley LLP at 617-399-7770.

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, trademark law, probate matters including wills, powers of attorney, health care proxy, same-sex co-parent adoptions, guardianships, animal law, or LGBT legal matters.    

New Detention Center For Immigrants Opens in Texas

The New York Times reported that a new immigrant detention center has opened in Karnes County, Texas. The detention center is part of the Obama administration's plan to reform the immigration system in order "to provide a less penal setting for detainees" that are considered a minimal safety risk. The detention center resembles a school setting more than a jail where detainees will be allowed to move freely around most of the center. The guards who are unarmed will be referred to as "resident advisers" dressing in khaki pants and blue polo shirts. There will be courtrooms on the premises for immigration hearings with video conferencing available for judges in San Antonio and Houston. 


Advocates of human rights and immigrants had long criticized the federal government's use of jails and jail-like detention centers for mistreating detainees, including providing poor health care that would result in deaths, for people who were mainly detained for civil violations. There are plans to upgrade several existing detention centers around the country, as well as plans to build new centers in South Florida and Chicago to hold medium and high security detainees. 


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, trademark law, probate matters including wills, powers of attorney, health care proxy, same-sex parent adoptions, guardianships, animal law, or LGBT legal matters.   

Allegations Arise Against ICE: Did the Government Lie to the Supreme Court?

Washington Square Legal Services, Inc. (WSLS) alleges that the Office of the Solicitor General may have lied in front of the Supreme Court in a 2009 case (Nken v. Holder) as to whether the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had a policy in place for returning individuals who had been wrongfully deported. WSLS issued a press release on March 9, 2012, stating that a new memo from ICE dated February 24, 2012, demonstrated that there was no government policy in place to return wrongfully deported individuals in 2009 and raises more questions than answers about how ICE deals with these cases. 


"It includes no concrete information on how people wrongfully deported are to be returned to the United States. Instead, this memo seems designed to help the government convince courts that it has a polic in place, when all other evidence points to the contrary," said Jessica Chicco of the Post-Deportation Human Rights Project at Boston College. 


ICE claimed that the policy has always existed but the latest February directive does not provide effective relief  measures nor does it provide a procedural framework. The directive also failed to explain how the government would communicate with individuals who have been wrongfully deported how they could return to the United States, particularly for individuals who do not have legal representation in the U.S. 


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. 

Guidance for Immigration Asylum Cases Involving LGBTI Individuals

The USCIS has released a new training module called "Guidance for Adjudicating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) Refugee and Asylum Claims." The guidance has been in the works for two years in cooperation with Immigration Equality, a national organization that advocates for equality under U.S. immigration law for LGBTI and HIV-positive individuals .

The training module provides appropriately sensitive and helpful questions for officers to use and provides instructions on what types of questions should be avoided; LGBTI-specific examples of harm that constitute persecution in an individual's home country; possible one-year filing deadline exceptions (such as recently "coming out"); and instructions on how to deal with various complex issues (such as understanding that cultural norms in the LGBTI community in the individual's home country may differ from those in the U.S.; that LGBTI applicants are not required to meet pre-conceived stereotypes or "look gay" - a common issue that has arisen in asylum cases in the past; and that former opposite-gender marriages does not mean that the applicant is not lesbian or gay).

The Guidance Introduction said "Interviews with LGBTI or HIV-positive refugee and asylum applicants require the individual to discuss some of the most sensitive and private aspects of human identity and behavior - sexual orientation, gender identity, and life-threatening illness." The new training module will provide attorneys, advocates, and immigration officers with a government guideline similar to those issued for other types of asylum claims.

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.

ICE Charges Worcester Man For Role in Nationwide Identity Fraud Ring

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported that U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has charged 50 people, including a Worcester man, with running an identity-trafficking ring. According to federal court documents, the ring sold the identities of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens to individuals over a dozen cities around the country. 


The investigation, which started in April 2009, identified "conspirators in 15 states and Puerto Rico [who] 'trafficked the identities of Puerto Rican U.S. citizens, corresponding Social Security cards, Puerto Rico birth certificates and other identification documents to undocumented aliens and others residing in the United States.'"  


Rafael Rivera Figueroa, a Worcester resident, has been accused of working as an "identity broker" within the ring. The indictment revealed that once Puerto Rican identities were stolen, members of the ring would sell sets of Social Security cards and birth certificates for $700-$2,500 per set. The customers would allegedly use the sets of documents to apply for state driver's licenses, U.S. passports, or to commit financial fraud.


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.

New Immigration Hotline for Detainees Arrested by Local Police

The Los Angeles Times reported that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced a new hotline established for detainees who "believe they may be U.S. citizens or victims of a crime" if they are held in custody by local law enforcement. The Obama Administration launched the hotline in response to cases where local law enforcement were detaining U.S. citizens, believing they were illegal immigrants. 


The hotline is staffed 24 hours a day by ICE personnel, seven days a week, with interpreters fluent in several different languages. Once a phone call is made, a hotline staffer will collect information from the detainee that will be forwarded to the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations field office. The detainee will be presented with a form available in different languages that will inform them of their rights, including a notification that ICE officials should take custody of the individual within 48 hours. The press release also stated "if ICE does not take them into custody within the 48 hours, they should contact the [law enforcement agency] or entity that is holding them to inquire about their release from state or local custody." 


The toll-free number is (855) 448-6903. 


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.

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.

Immigration Court & 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.

If you are an immigrant in deporation / removal proceedings, our attorneys can review your record and help you understand whether you are eligible for any relief including an excercise of prosecutorial discretion.

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.

Adjustment of Status (Green card) 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.

If you are an immigrant with TPS and/or EWI entry, our attorneys can review your record and help you understand whether you are eligible for any relief including a "green card" or adjustment of status.

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.

Task Force Criticizes ICE Deportation Policies

A task force advising Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") criticized the ICE program, Secure Communities, which requires local law enforcement, including the police department to assist ICE in deporting immigrants who lack legal status in the United States. The Task Force stated that the policy resulted in the detention and deportation of immigrants arrested for minor traffic violations and did not apply, as intended, mostly to immigrants with serious criminal convictions. Under Secure Communities, anyone arrested by local or state police are checked with an FBI fingerprint database and if they are listed in the ICE database, ICE may initiate deportation proceedings. The Task Force advised that ICE should make fuller use of prosecutorial discretion and concentrate on those persons with serious criminal felonies.

ICE Enforces "Secure Communities"

Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") has stated that it will carry out the "Secure Communities" initiative despite opposition from Governor Deval Patrick and Mayor Thomas Menino.  Under Secure Communities, all persons who are arrested, even for traffic related violations, have their fingerprints checked with the FBI database.  If there is a match for an immigration violation,  ICE may place the person in deportation and immigration detention.   Despite representations that Secure Communities is meant to target gang members and serious criminal convictions, Boston's police commissioner stated that immigrants with trafffic violations are also being deported from the United States.  According to a recent New York Times article,  about 200,000 immigrants live in Boston and are about 1/4 of the population of the city.