March 07, 2011
Many people are placed in removal proceedings but are waiting for adjudication of a petition or an adjudication from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) or simply for a family or employment based priority date to become current. At times Immigration Judges become impatient and order people removed or goad them into taking voluntary departure. Remember the Board of […]
March 02, 2011
The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) in Matter of GUEVARA ALFARO, 25 I&N Dec. 417 (BIA 2011) held: (1) Any intentional sexual conduct by an adult with a child involves moral turpitude, as long as the perpetrator knew or should have known that the victim was under the age of 16. Matter of Silva-Trevino, 24 I&N Dec. 687 (A.G. 2008), followed. Quintero-Salazar […]
March 01, 2011
United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) issued an interim memo (in effect now) to address scenarios when a foreign national is in removal (deportation ) proceedings before the Immigration Courts (part of the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review) but an application for a benefit is pending before USCIS (part of the Department of Homeland Security). Those Immigration Court litigators […]
February 28, 2011
It sounds like a mouthful. One of the divisions of the U.S. Government that represents the U.S. Department of Homeland Security before the Federal Courts (mainly the various Courts of Appeal) is the Office of Immigration Litigation (OIL). Periodically, OIL publishes their Immigration Litigation Bulletin which was previously unavailable to the public until the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was […]
February 24, 2011
The Board of Immigration Appeals held in Matter of Nelson 25 I&N Dec. 410 (BIA 2011): “Once an alien has been convicted of an offense that stops the accrual of the 7-year period of continuous residence required for cancellation of removal under section 240A(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a) (2006), section 240A(d)(1) of the Act does […]
February 22, 2011
In a refreshing decision, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded an MS-13 El Salvador gang case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals after determining that the respondent did fit within a particular social group for his kinship (family) ties to his uncle who testified against the criminal gang MS-13. Both the uncle and the respondent received threats in El […]
February 21, 2011
Headnote: “In general, an alien’s conviction for a crime involving moral turpitude triggers removability under section 237(a)(2)(A)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(i) (2006), only if the alien committed the crime within 5 years after the date of the admission by virtue of which he or she was then present in the United States. Matter of Shanu, […]
February 07, 2011
In a case argued and briefed by Attorney Ricky Malik, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a published decision on January 19, 2011 denying the asylum, withholding and Convention against Torture (CAT) claims of one of our clients. Our client was seeking asylum and related protection in the United States based on his fear of returning to El […]
February 04, 2011
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals analyzed whether a VA Code 18.2-251 dismissal qualifies as a conviction for Immigration purposes per INA 101(a)(48)(A) even though it was a deferred adjudication. In Crespo v. Holder, the respondent did not plead guilty, and even though the judge found facts justifying a finding of guilty. The court felt that Congress in writing the Immigration laws […]
February 03, 2011
Attorney Ricky Malik argued and tried a case of a woman who was seeking asylum based on the severe abuse endured at the hands of her husband. Ricky Malik, Esq. Immigration Attorney
