So you defend those that have already broken at least one federal law and most likely have also added identify theft to their dossier? What is the defense for these defendants? At least they haven't killed anyone?
Frivolous Lawsuits
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So you defend those that have already broken at least one federal law and most likely have also added identify theft to their dossier? What is the defense for these defendants? At least they haven't killed anyone?
One positive thing about illegals who want to become legal is just this. In this very act they are showing a desire to amend their ways.
I'd say no illegal who is a murderer would risk taking this step, especially if he is already being "looked for" by authorities. Probably applies as well to the "mules", the street name for drug runners, and other offenders. Might also be an indicator that these individuals are not exactly in the La Raza set.
Taking this step is also an indicator that they are moving off our welfare system, and that they indeed have some marketable job in their sights.
I'd say no illegal who is a murderer would risk taking this step, especially if he is already being "looked for" by authorities. Probably applies as well to the "mules", the street name for drug runners, and other offenders. Might also be an indicator that these individuals are not exactly in the La Raza set.
Taking this step is also an indicator that they are moving off our welfare system, and that they indeed have some marketable job in their sights.
The most frequent cases I take involve U-Visa and VAWA petitions. They are victims of crimes during their residence in the United States and many VAWA petitioners are here under color of law without independant legal authority to remain. I know, I'm a real jerk for helping these people for free.
To my knowledge none of my clients have "added identity theft to their dossier." These people have real and legitimate paths to legal residency under existing federal law. Some of us believe immigration law is too difficult for immigrants to navigate on their own and that it is too difficult to obtain legal residency. It's a practical reality that they are here and if they have a legitimate right to stay we help them stay. I prefer that outlook to moralizing over a relatively arbitrary federal law.
DutchJazzer
Banned
also funny that a laywer has an avatar of the questionable Saul Goodman
good work
good work
I applaud kicky for doing what he's doing. I have no problem with legal immigrants. In my opinion, it's better for them to take the steps to become legal and contribute to the system than to remain illegal and drain the system. Like he said, they're here. He has the means, resources, and knowledge to help them gain legal status. Why not do it. Since I doubt he's walking the streets of California kidnapping Mexicans and forcing them to fill out the forms, it's obviously something they want anyway.
LogGrad98
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Link?
You'll notice I said "I doubt". No link required.
A sense of humor is required to enjoy life in JazzFanz, I believe. Check out DI, some say they have everything.
Ha! You think people in Northern California can afford lawns.
But seriously, life as an illegal is very difficult. It is relatively common for my clients to get arrested on pretty dubious grounds while their paperwork is being processed and we have to accept deals on unfavorable terms because having a formal legal conviction while your papers are pending can be fatal to your immigration petition.
Example: One of my clients is a 15 year old kid who was applying for U-Visa. A quick primer here: A U-Visa is available for immigrants who are here illegally but are the victims of some sort of serious crime (there's a long list of qualifying offenses) who then materially assist law enforcement and the local prosecutors in putting the criminal behind bars. The process exists because without some kind of protection it was historically very difficult to catch whole classes of criminals because illegal immigrants didn't want to report crimes to the police for fear of deportation. Anyway, the point here is that this kid went out of his way to testify against some pretty bad dudes and risked his life and a major beef with a latino street gang because of it.
So the guy is walking down the street and gets arrested. I freak out since his papers are pending and go read the arrest report. The officer wrote (and this is barely a paraphrase of the officers' side of the story): "My partner and I were driving around looking for a particular person. We saw (my client). He did not match the description. We stopped him anyway. We asked him where he was going. He said he was going to his mother's apartment from his girlfriends house. We asked him where his girlfriend lived and he pointed to an apartment complex across the street. We noticed he had a tattoo on his arm. In the officers' experience tattoos on minors are indicative of gang activity. We conducted a search of his person and found a screw driver in his pocket. Screwdrivers are potential weapons. We asked him why he had a screwdriver, he said he had been helping his girlfriend build a bookcase."
Bang, arrested for possession of a deadly weapon and facing deportation. Now I read that and it smacks of an eensy bit of profiling. How many times have the white people on this board been stopped by the police for not matching a description of someone they're looking for?
Now we can't let him take a conviction for anything because it will disqualify him from getting his U-Visa so I have to negotiate with the DA and tell her in no uncertain terms that unless I get a deal that involves no convictions I'm going to be taking it to trial and I'm going to make the cop read his report word-for-word to a jury on the stand and I'm not going to ask him lots of questions like "how often do you pull over white people for not matching a description?" I also have to threaten to get the local media involved and present to her papers to allow the proposed trial to be televised on public access and point out that we're going to be angling for as many foreign-sounding names as possible on a San Jose jury pool (we could probably get between 7-9). Long story short, we really don't want to actually go to trial because it will take a long time and it might delay his immigration proceedings for a year so even though the kid was literally guilty of having a girlfriend who doesn't own a screwdriver we had to accept 80 hours of community service in exchange for deferred prosecution. Dude lost two full work weeks of his life because immigrants can't risk fighting it.
In related news, this is one of many reasons I think cops are ********.
I was laughing when I typed that. I guess the sarcasm didn't come through.
DutchJazzer
Banned
I am firmly against imigration laws. in my opinion it needs to be abbolished.
with all the money countries are spending on keeping imigrants out. they could use that money to make things better in the country where those immigrants come from.
with all the money countries are spending on keeping imigrants out. they could use that money to make things better in the country where those immigrants come from.