Asylum For Family Fleeing Voter Coercion in Mexico
Nov 15, 2019
OUTCOME: Asylum Granted
In southern Mexico, criminal cartels were visiting voters home, threatening Mexican citizens that unless they voted for the cartel's favored candidate, the cartel would murder the family. A number of c...ourageous voters defied the cartels and voted according to their conscience. The cartel monitored votes and were able to determine who voted for and against their candidates. The cartel then returned to the homes of voters who defied them and demanded that they leave the state, or die.
Immigration
Green Card - Adjustment in Immigration Court with Vacated Conviction
Sep 15, 2017
OUTCOME: My client got his green card.
We had a case were my client was trying to adjust on the basis of a work-based petition in the immigration court.
Before the client finally came to me, he had worked with eight other immigration la...wyers during the period of about nine years. They all told him that his case was hopeless.
He had been convicted in the 1990s for a charge of alleged drug sales. He was single at the time and living with roommates, who he didn't know at the time were selling drugs. The police came one night while the roommates were gone and pinned the drugs on my client. In criminal court, my client was intimidated and afraid of a long prison sentence, to he struck a plea deal. The conviction was vacated in the early 2000s; however, an adjustment applicaiton will be denied if the government finds "reason to believe" (under Immigration and Nationality Act Section 212(a)(3)(C)) that the applicant trafficked a drug. So although the conviction was vacated, the government alleged that there was still "reason to belive" my client trafficked based on the police report. Also, the client had been interviewed at USCIS previously and the transcript of the interview stated that my client allegedly admitted to "selling with his roommates" for about three months. So our strategy in court was to attack both the police report and the transcript of the interview. We were able to show that the police report was not credible. Most importantly, we were able to show that the USCIS interview and transcript were unreliable and confusing and that my client did not understand the question. The Spanish words for "selling" and "living" sound very similar, especially with a bad interpreter: "vendiendo" and "viviendo". Fortunately, the judge found the transcript of the prior interview lacking in credibility also. My client had no other convictions or charges on his record.
Thanksfully, the judge found my client otherwise admissible and granted the application for adjustment.
