Marley, Magee & Associates, LLC

Heart Surgeons Don’t Practice Immigration Law So Neither Should You

You’ll be hard pressed to find a heart surgeon willing to file immigration documents on your behalf. In fact, many doctors dare not venture into the immigration world at all, even when it involves their own case. There are many good reasons for this but perhaps the best of all is that immigration law is just plain difficult. Even attorneys who do not practice immigration law on a regular basis refer their well paying clients to lawyers who specialize in this area. Attorneys know when they are getting in over their head and in matters of immigration, getting in over your head happens very quickly.  

That’s why I’m always surprised when a potential client who happens to stroll into our office for some free “advice” decides to go it alone. And it’s not because of the cost of an attorney, we bend over backwards to make sure anyone who desires representation gets it regardless of their ability to pay. Inevitably, the best advice I give to any client is that they should not go it alone. In matters of immigration, you need an attorney who specializes in immigration law – put another way, you wouldn’t ask a heart surgeon to treat you for cancer.   

Here’s just a sample of what I’m talking about:

(1) Gentleman from Haiti came into our office and wanted to know when he was going to get his green card. The man wanted to travel to Europe with his wife and had been planning the trip for several months. After paying the airfare and reserving hotel rooms in three different European countries, he was getting worried his green card wouldn’t be issued in time for him to travel. The man was represented by an attorney but not one that specialized in immigration law. After asking a few background questions, I asked him if his attorney had ever filed for advance parole on his behalf. The man said no, and even more surprising, had no idea what I was talking about.

Advance parole allows a person like my Haitian friend to travel while USCIS is adjudicating their application for adjustment of status. Ordinarily, a person who files for adjustment of status and then leaves the country is deemed to have abandoned his application. Advance parole prevents this from happening. There are some issues you have to be careful of which is why I asked the client several in-depth questions before I suggested he file for advance parole. Needless to say, my Haitian friend was able to go on his long planned vacation despite the fact USCIS was still processing his application to adjust status at the time he left.  

(2) Client from Bolivia came into our office and said he hired an attorney (again, not an attorney who specialized in immigration law) to help him with an employment visa. The client stated he came into the U.S. illegally, and that four years ago, his employer decided to help him get his green card. The man looked for an attorney who was of the same ethnic background and when he found one, he retained him. The attorney, who turned out to be a personal injury attorney – and not a very good one, charged the client $5,700 “to get me a green card.” The attorney filed all of the necessary paperwork and the petition was approved. The major problem was, the client came into the U.S. illegally and so was required to consular process in his home country as he was ineligible to adjust his status in the
U.S. Because the client had been in the U.S. illegally for more than 365-days, he was subject to a 10-year bar to admissibility. Moreover, because the client had no qualifying relatives, he could not apply for a waiver of the 10-year bar. So, for the $5,700 he spent on getting his green card, all he really got was a visa he can’t use.

The moral of the story is, immigration law is very complex – you need an immigration attorney. While it’s important you feel comfortable with your attorney, you shouldn’t retain one based on ethnicity or because they happen to have an office on your street. Immigration issues require a professional attorney who specializes in immigration law.  If you go it alone, you risk making very serious mistakes that could end up with you being deported. And if you retain an attorney who doesn’t practice in the area of immigration law, you might as well be asking your heart surgeon to treat you for cancer.

Shadow Politics - Danbury and New Haven Deal Differently with Illegal Immigration

Excerpt from an article originally printed in Connecticut Magazine, August 2007

    The mayors of New Haven and Danbury may not see eye to eye on very much these days, but on one thing they are in total agreement: Federal immigration policy is a gigantic mess and they have the mean streets to prove it.  While the White House and Congress struggle haplessly with yet another major reform proposal, Mayors John DeStefano and Mark Broughton have been left to their own devices.
    DeStefano speaks smoothly and earnestly about his efforts to provide safety and security to an estimated 15,000 people without documents.  "We're not making a political statement here," he explains.  "The federal government is not enforcing the law and we are merely  dealing with the consequences."  Broughton's staccato delivery emphasizes the burdens imposed on Danbury's taxpayers by an estimated 14,000 illegal immigrants: "You have as many as 25 people living in a single-family house.
    [Two events have put Danbury on the map.]  The first occurred during the last World Cup soccer tournament in June 2006, when a game won by Brazil sparked a spontaneous demonstration by the large Brazilian population, many presumed to be undocumented.  Careening down Main Street in honking automobiles, the revelers brought downtown to a standstill and created considerable political momentum for a new statute requiring parade permits for such demonstrations. 
    The second, and far more serious incident, occurred last year in Kennedy Park, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 11 Ecuadorian day laborers.  One of the agents was dressed like a contractor seeking workers.  Since then, periodic raids by ICE agents have resulted in a number of arrests, including a group of 10 in May.
    [Mayor Broughton takes a populist approach.] Working for the people includes introducing several programs affecting the immigrant community.  The most important by far is the Unified Neighborhood Inspection Teams, a city initiative to strictly enforce health-code issues like overcrowding in rental housing, unsafe fire hazards like jerry-rigged kitchen appliances, and informal and illegal businesses conducted out of homes.  The teams were authorized in part to do away with Ecuadorian volleyball games - conducted in backyards with widespread betting and unauthorized food and beverage sales.
    The main reason Danbury has such a large undocumented population is that the city is a veritable job machine, with unemployment in the 2 percent range and close proximity to some of the wealthiest communities in America - communities that wouldn't be cleaned, mowed, raked or otherwise cared for without immigrant labor.
    In many respects, Mayor Boughton probably reflects what the pollsters say most Americans and, presumably, most Dandury residents think:  People who broke the law to come here should not be welcomed or rewarded.
    Like his counterpart in Danbury, DeStefano has been forced to develop new policies to accommodate thousands of illegal newcomers, but his concerns have been more directed to the immigrants themselves than to the community-at-large.
    "Because they lack social security numbers, they can't use banks, so they often have large amounts of cash.  We begin to notice a surge in home invasions and other forms of robbery.  We also heard about buses picking up the undocumented to take to nearby farms, and that they were paid differently.  Then we notice that some of the landlords were packing them into houses and charging high rents."
    To deal with the identification issue, the city in June began offering its own ID cards.  By producing a birth certificate or consular document, an immigrant is able to obtain official status at least as far as the City of New Haven is concerned.  Although some advocates for immigrants worry that the new ID cards will, in effect, brand illegals, others are convinced that the liberal New Haven community will respond by getting ID cards as well, and the city hopes to encourage this by persuading local businesses to offer discounts for card carriers. 

3 at Bianco Plant Indicted on Immigration Charges

Excerpt from an article originally appearing in The Providence Journal, August 4, 2007
Article by: Karen Lee Ziner

    Five months after a sweeping immigration raid at the Michael Bianco Inc. plant in New Bedford, company president Francesco Insolia and two of his top managers have been indicted on charges of conspiring to harbor and hire illegal immigrants to fulfill almost $230 million in government contracts.
    U.S. Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said the indictment "should send a clear message to all employers that hiring illegal or unauthorized aliens, or conspiring to shield them from detection will not be tolerated."
    Sullivan, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, said the alleged conduct by Insolia and his managers "undermines the integrity of our immigration system and could place legally operating businesses at a competitive disadvantage."
    Insolia and the other two defendants will be arraigned Aug. 9.
    The two-count indictment names Isolia, 50; production manager Dilia Costa, 55, of New Bedford; and contracts specialist Gloria Melo, 41, of Fall River.  They are each changed with conspiring to harbor or conceal or shield illegal aliens from detection, or to encourage and induce aliens to come to, enter and reside in the United States; and with conspiring to hire and continue to employ unauthorized aliens.
    If convicted of the charge of conspiring to hire illegal aliens, Insolia, Costa and Melo each face maximum sentences of 10-years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a $100 special assessment, plus at least two-years of supervised release.  They face months in prison, a $100 special assessment, and a $10,000 fine for each illegal alien hired by the Bianco company on the charge of conspiracy to hire illegal aliens.
    ICE is continuing its investigation with assistance from the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General; the Department of Defense's Criminal Investigative Service; The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General; the Massachusetts Insurance Fraud Bureau and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Connecticut Man Accused of Defrauding Immigrants

-- The Associated Press

WARWICK -- A Connecticut man accused of defrauding illegal Irish immigrants out of millions of dollars will be returned to that state after his arrest near T.F. Green Airport.

Ralph Cucciniello appeared in a Rhode Island court today. He waived extradition, and authorities say he'll be returned to Connecticut sometime within the next week.

He's being held at the Adult Correctional Institutions, in Cranston. He was arrested yesterday.

The Hartford Courant reported that Cucciniello was charged on an arrest warrant issued in Connecticut with 59 counts of larceny and one count of racketeering.

Cucciniello is accused of posing as a lawyer affiliated with Yale University in New Haven, and of swindling Irish immigrants with promises of helping them gain U.S. citizenship.