Professor Jorjani Comments on Supreme Court Immigration Ruling

Professor Raha Jorjani commented in a recent media release on a U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that criminal defense attorneys have a duty to advise their clients of the immigration consequences of guilty pleas. 

The landmark decision in Padilla v. Kentucky involved a lawful permanent resident who has lived in the U.S. for four decades and served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War.  His criminal defense attorney wrongfully told him that pleading guilty to a drug charge would not lead to deportation. In his appeal, Padilla argued that his defense attorney's incorrect advice about deportation consequences amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel, and on March 31, the Court ruled in his favor.

Professor Jorjani commented on the fact that for many, the immigration consequences of a guilty plea were far worse than the criminal consequences.  "For many of our clients, deportation operates as one of the harshest consequences.  With deportation may come detention, family separation, and as the Supreme Court said in 1922, a loss of ‘all that makes life worth living,'" said Professor Jorjani.  "The Padilla decision affirms the critical necessity for defense counsel to communicate immigration consequences of pleas to non-citizen defendants.  In light of often unforgiving immigration consequences - often for non-violent, first-time, misdemeanors - the Supreme Court's decision in Padilla does not arrive a moment too soon."

Raha Jorjani is a staff attorney in the Immigration Law Clinic at the UC Davis School of Law with a special interest in advocacy on behalf of detained immigrants.  Since October 2009, she has also served as in-house immigration counsel for the Alameda County Public Defender's Office.  The Alameda County Public Defender's Office is one of the only local defender offices that currently has this in-house immigration counsel model.