The National Lawyers’ Guild has answered ICE’s request for feedback on it’s policy to resume deporations of Haitian nationals: On Monday, March 7, 2011 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requested feedback on its policy to resume deportations/removals to Haiti. The deadline for comments is March 11 to email your comments to ICE. The National Immigration [...]

Yesterday in Diouf v. Napolitano the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit  issued an opinion confirming that an individual facing prolonged immigration detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(a)(6) is entitled to release on bond unless the government establishes that he is a flight risk or a danger to the community. In other words, the burden [...]

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been stepping on immigration enforcement activities. Here’s a recent article from the Associated Press: Federal authorities say a six-day sweep of South Florida has netted 19 illegal immigrants with criminal records. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says the operation that ended Thursday also caught four fugitives with final orders of [...]

Cancellation of Removal for non-Permanent Residents is a form of relief from deportation available to foreign nationals who meet the following four requirements: Have been physically present for a continuous period of at least ten years preceding the date deportation proceedings are commenced; Has had good moral character during that ten year period; Has had no convictions for any crime(s) that can render the [...]

The Orlando Sentinel reported today that the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (USICE) deported yesterday, 26 Haitians who have criminal convictions. This was the first group of Haitians that have been deported since the U.S. government placed a hold on deportations soon after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that ravaged that country last year. The Haitian-American community in Florida and the immigration advocates who [...]

The New York Times  reported today that the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) received over 53,000 applications from Haitians seeking Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of which, the agency approved a majority of those applications. Tuesday, January 18, 2011 was the deadline for Haitians to apply for TPS.  The program granted benefits to certain Haitians that were in the U.S. on the day of the earthquake (January 12, [...]

The Orlando Sentinel reported earlier this week that the proposal of an Arizona style immigration legislation that some say helped Florida’s current Governor Rick Scott get elected, is not well received in the Florida legislature. Critics in the Florida Legislature have said that for Arizona, a border state that has a lot of undocumented immigrants and sees ongoing violence just across the [...]

The Orlando Sentinel reported that today, January 12 is the one (1) year anniversary that a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that killed over 230,000 people and left about 1,000,000 homeless in Haiti, the western hemisphere’s poorest country. In an effort to help Haitian nationals both in the U.S. and in Haiti, President Obama and his administration acted quickly and extended benefits such as Humanitarian Parole  and Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS [...]

The Orlando Sentinel reported today that the Florida Senate Judiciary Committee has invited speakers for a hearing scheduled for later today to provide information about immigration reform and its impact on the State of Florida. Both Florida’s Governor and Attorney General who began their terms in office just last week, support an Arizona style immigration related legislation. We at Pappas Law Group [...]

The New York Times reported earlier this week that Governor Patterson issued pardons last week to 24 lawful permanent residents (green card holders) with prior criminal convictions, to avoid deportation to their native countries. The Governor’s term and by extension, the pardon panel will end on December 31, 2010.  The panel received over 1,100 applications for executive clemency this year and the pressure to render decisions on [...]