Immigration Clinic Wins Another Case

The School of Law Immigration Clinic successfully argued for termination of deportation proceedings for a client who has been a legal resident of the United States since infancy. The client has a United States citizen wife, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in the local Sacramento/Yolo County area. He worked for the majority of his childhood and adolescence picking fruit and vegetables in Dixon and Winters. 

The client was in deportation proceeding and detained for the past year and a half.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had arrested him for illegal entry into the United States when, in fact, he had been illegally deported from the United States. ICE believed he had a warrant for his deportation even though the warrant had been vacated because his deportation order was reopened. ICE still alleges that despite their error, he should not have been allowed back into the United States. 

Immigration Clinic Staff Attorney Holly Cooper '98 argued that ICE had failed to prove that the client was removable for any of his offenses. She also argued that his rehabilitation and family ties outweighed the nature of his crimes. Immigration Judge Dana Marks agreed, finding the client was illegally deported and not deportable for his criminal convictions because ICE failed in their burden to show his crimes were deportable convictions.

Joe Castillo '06 and Juliette Gonsalves '07 worked on the case last semester. In case of appeal, law students Sarah Martinez '08 and Wajahat Ali '07 are drafting the writ of habeas corpus.