Sarah Blackwell's Immigration Law Blog

77 New U.S. citizens in Wisconsin

This morning, I had to go to the Milwaukee USCIS office for a client's adjustment of status interview.  The place was packed!  Normally, the waiting area is practically empty.  A citizenship oath ceremony was being held.  This is a bit unusual in Wisconsin; the oath ceremonies are usually held at the federal district courthouse, but additional oath ceremonies have been scheduled this month to give the new citizens a chance to vote next week.

Watching an oath ceremony is a moving experience.  The presiding officer read out the names of all the countries represented.  It was like a roll call of the United Nations.  I didn't count the number of countries, but I'm estimating it was between 20-30 countries.  Then she read out their names and each stood up individually.  What powerful reminders that this country is a nation of immigrants. 

As an immigration attorney, I know the likely backstory for most of the individuals being sworn in as citizens. 

A good number of them were originally "illegal immigrants": they entered this country illegally perhaps 10-15 years ago (or more) or they overstayed a visa.  Our laws have allowed them to first become legal permanent residents and now U.S. citizens despite their past immigration law transgressions.  To become a citizen, you have to show good moral character, which means not being convicted of crimes, paying taxes and child support, not claiming public benefits unless entitled to them. 

Some came as workers, recruited by American employers because they have knowledge and skills otherwise absent in the U.S. workforce.  Others came to the country as spouses, fiance(e)s, children of U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents.  Still others entered as students or nonimmigrant workers and married a U.S. citizen.  And a few came into the country as asylees/refugees, fleeing persecution in their countries of origin. 

No matter their backstories, they enrich our country and deserve our admiration because they all share a willingness to leave familiar surroundings to pursue their dreams. Here in Wisconsin, 75% of residents were born in the state.  The majority of Wisconsites have no idea what it is like to move to completely new place far from familiar surroundings and familiar culture and how much courage and faith that requires.

These 77 new citizens will cast their first votes in a national election next week.  They will have a voice.  For some, this will be the first time ever in their lives that they have voted in a democratic election.  For those of us who were born U.S. citizens, that's hard to imagine as we sometimes take for granted that we live in a democracy.  Don't forget to vote! 

When Applying For Citizenship Can Cause Trouble

There is no requirement that any legal permanent resident ever become a U.S. citizen.  Indeed, many never do while others wait considerably more than the minimum years required for eligibility.  My parents did not become U.S. citizens until they had lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years.  A recent government study examined the naturalization rates of individuals who became legal permanent residents in 1977 and 1982.  By 1996, only 51% of the 1977 cohort were U.S. citizens.  For the 1982 cohort, only 46% were U.S. citizens.  (See The Timing of Naturalization in the United States Through 1996, http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/natz_timing_wp_508.pdf)

The decision to apply for citizenship is not one to be taken lightly if you have a criminal conviction because the application could trigger removal proceedings.  Without exaggeration, some people should never apply for citizenship.

Why would an application for citizenship trigger removal proceedings?  A citizenship application requires a criminal background check.  The government will scrutinize any conviction, no matter how old, to determine whether the offense renders the applicant removable.  If the government concludes the offense is likely a grounds for finding the applicant removable, the citizenship application will be denied and the applicant referred to Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The government will not care how long you have been a legal permanent resident.  I have had clients who have lived in the U.S. for more than 25 years and found themselves in removal proceedings for a 20-year old conviction because they applied for citizenship or applied for a replacement green card. 

How can someone end up in removal proceedings 20 years after being convicted?  Why weren't they deported/removed when they were convicted?  Immigration law has a particularly nasty feature: the statutes that define what convictions render a person removable tend to change retroactively.  In all other areas of law, changes to laws are prospective to give people the chance to choose not to engage in criminal behavior.  The most serious changes to immigration law occurred between 1988 and 1996. 

So someone could have been convicted of a crime prior to 1996 and not been deportable/removable for the offense.  But in 1996, the laws changed and suddenly the individual became deportable. 

The U.S. government though does not systematically track down individuals with criminal convictions who do not serve time in prison or who became deportable as a result of a change in immigration law.  (To serve time in prison, the sentence imposed must be at least one year.)  The government simply waits for the individual to do something that brings him/her to the attention of USCIS. 

How does someone bring themselves to the attention of USCIS? By traveling outside the U.S.  By committing another crime.  By applying for a replacement green card. By applying for citizenship. 

So imagine a legal permanent resident who was convicted of a single crime in 1985.  In 2008, he finally decides to apply for citizenship, perhaps because he needs SSI or he finally wants the right to vote.  That conviction could land him in immigration court.  It is highly likely that such an individual will be able to avoid removal/deportation, but only at great expense.

Alternatively, imagine a legal permanent resident who was convicted of a crime in 2003, just 2 years after becoming a resident.  Although she could have been sentenced to a year or more in prison, she had a criminal defense attorney who succeeded at getting her a sentence of less than a year in return for a guilty plea.  If this was the best she could hope for, then she had a good criminal defense attorney, but if the attorney could have negotiated a different charge or there was a possibility she would have have been proven innocent at trial, then her guilty plea secured her referral to immigration court.   If she's  really unfortunate, she gets referred to immigration court just short of 7 years after she became  legal permanent resident.  If she is removable, there is no relief available.  She will be deported and she will not be admissible to the country for 15 years.

It's impractical to state here all the crimes that could render a person deportable. Whether a particular conviction will cause problems for naturalization depends on:

• the nature of the crime (is it a crime involving moral turpitude? is it an aggravated felony? is it  drug crime? is it a crime of domestic violence?)
• how long the individual had been a legal permanent resident when she/he committed the crime
• the sentence imposed
• the sentence that could be imposed
• whether there are multiple convictions

Applying for citizenship is the perfect example of how an immigration process looks so simple (just fill out a form) but can have deadly consequences.

Welcome to the Wisconsin Immigration Law Blog

Hello and welcome to my blog.  This is going to be all about immigration law.  As this blog evolves, I hope it becomes a useful place for information about immigration law.  In this posting, I want to give you a general overview of immigration law and my practice.

Immigration law is an area of federal law, which means the laws and regulations are the same in every state.  My practice is located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Because I practice federal law, I am allowed to practice immigration law in any state as long as I am licensed in at least one state.  I am licensed in Wisconsin.   

When I started law school, I thought I would practice health law because I had previous experience working in healthcare management.  Then I had the chance to work as a legal assistant for an immigration attorney and fell in love with immigration law.  It is a natural fit for me.  I am an immigrant myself.  I was born in England.  I have lived in England, U.S. and Canada.  As a teenager, I went to an international boarding school and have friends from over 50 countries through that school.  I love to travel. As a solo practitioner, it can be hard to get away from the office, but even though I don't travel abroad as much as I would like, I travel vicarously throught my clients.  The world comes to my office!  So far, I have had clients from over 30 different countries.

Come back often to pick up useful and helpful information about immigration law!  My next post will be about citizenship, a rather timely topic as those of us who are U.S. citizens are about to head to the polls to vote if we've not already voted early.