On December 31, 2014, Governor Andrew Cuomo granted two pardons, affirming that people should not have to bear the consequences of a criminal conviction for life. Alvaro “Khalil” Cumberbatch, one of the pardon recipients, is a long-time legal permanent resident who spent half of 2014 in immigration detention. While, the Obama Administration has publicly acknowledged the need to remove federal … Read more »
Several NY trial courts have held that a noncitizen must wait to bring a Padilla challenge to an unconstitutional conviction until the federal government has initiated removal proceedings. However, in that scenario, the noncitizen may be deported before the court decides whether the conviction is valid. Also, once removal proceedings commence, the noncitizen may suffer other harms such as prolonged … Read more »
Immigrant Justice Network (IJN) recently launched a new website at www.immigrantjusticenetwork.org. This site includes resources on the immigration reform bills pending in Congress, including IJN’s analysis, talking points, fact sheets, action alerts, and stories of people impacted by our harsh immigration laws. IJN is a collaboration between the Immigrant Defense Project, the National Immigration Project and the Immigrant Legal Resource … Read more »
For Immediate Release – April 18, 2013 Contact: Alisa Wellek, awellek[at]immigrantdefenseproject[dot]org 212.725.6421 917-727-8444 Senate “Gang of 8” Immigration Bill Needs More Work to Ensure Fundamental Fairness for All Immigrants Immigrant Justice Network applauds start of immigration debate PDF available here WASHINGTON, DC — The long-delayed congressional debate over vital immigration reform begins this week following the filing of a bipartisan … Read more »
As the White House and Congress considers reforms to the federal immigration system, the nation has an opportunity to address some of the system’s most unfair aspects and simultaneously resist new harmful provisions that immigrants and advocates would have to fight for decades to come. To help guide advocacy for a more humane immigration system toward fairness for all immigrants, … Read more »
On December 21, 2012, the IDP joined the National Immigration Project in submitting an amici “friend of the court” brief arguing that the federal government is wrong to apply retroactively the cancellation of removal eligibility “clock-stop” rule – enacted by Congress in 1996 – to pre-1996 criminal conduct. Under the clock-stop rule, an applicant for cancellation of removal must show that he … Read more »
On October 10, the Supreme Court heard argument in Moncrieffe v. Holder, the third Supreme Court case in the last six years challenging the government’s overbroad readings of the harsh drug trafficking mandatory deportation ground. In this case, the immigrant petitioner challenges the government’s policy of deeming certain low-level marijuana offenses to be “drug trafficking” aggravated felonies even if the … Read more »
On July 23, 2012, IDP, along with New York University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic and Families for Freedom, released “Insecure Communities, Devastated Families: New Data on Immigrant Detention and Deportation Practices in New York City.” In the wake of growing deportation programs such as the recently-activated “Secure Communities” initiative, this new report sheds light on the precise ways … Read more »
Click here to download the report. The Immigrant Defense Project (IDP) and the New York University (NYU) School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic have published a Report entitled Judicial Obligations after Padilla v. Kentucky: The Role of Judges in Upholding Defendants’ Rights to Advice About the Immigration Consequences of Criminal Convictions. The October 2011 Report is intended to help educate criminal … Read more »