Immigration lawyers help you with all aspects of your immigration request, although maybe the most critical thing they do is assisting you when you get in trouble with immigration. It is not the most popular need, that is citizenship, green cards and visas. Were you aware that there's an immigration court, much like there are state and federal courts? If you're arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) you will sooner or later find yourself in front of an immigration judge in immigration court. For anything to do with immigration court, you need to have an immigration lawyer to advise you. Retaining an immigration lawyer offers you a better probability of succeeding. Another way of putting why you need an immigration lawyer in immigration court is to consider precisely what is likely to happen to you if you are not successful. If you fail to win in immigration court the judge is entitled to remove you from the US. If you don't appeal such a decision, it will become final and then ICE will detain you and have you removed from the United States of America, typically back to your country of origin.

The Ways That Immigrants Can Get Into Trouble

With an awareness as to why a lawyer who deals with immigration would be essential in in dealing with immigration court, let's now examine why you might get into predicaments over immigration. We normally encounter a couple of key categories of people in serious trouble with immigration. First of all, individuals who are suspected of immigration offenses, and second those who have committed a crime in the USA. Both of those groups are dealt with in the same way by ICE . First ICE will detain them and then they are sent to immigration court.

Frequent Immigration Issues

Many individuals finish up in immigration court as a result of immigration transgressions. Let us look into two or three illustrations. Let us say you are a student attending university using a student visa (F-1). If you're taking a complete academic course load, but quit attending the classes, the university should alert ICE. Representatives from ICE will come find you and detain you for not honoring your status as a student. A further typical example is with people who stay longer than their visa allows and commence employment without having consent. Perhaps you came here on holiday from Scotland. Once you arrived in the States, you don't want to return home and you spent all your money. So, you overstay your visa and get a job in a restaurant. If perhaps you were stopped for exceeding the speed limit, the officer may well contact ICE to check out your immigration status. The ICE official would quickly see that you are an over stay and that you have been at work. As with the previous example, the ICE agent would arrest you for violating your status, as well as working without authorization.

Processed by Immigration Court & ICE

In both of these examples, after arrest you would be subject to processing by way of the immigration program. At this time, this means following your arrest you will be taken to a detention facility run by ICE and held there. Immigration violators are usually transferred to such detention centers as they incorporate the immigration courts. Subsequently you will have your case heard without ever leaving the detention center. One of the first things you can ask for is bond, so that you can be free from the immigration detention facility. An experienced immigration lawyer will help you to arrange and file a request for bond to get you freed. If your bond request is successful, you can go back home. The immigration attorney can then submit a motion on your behalf, to swap the venue for your immigration court hearing. If this is successful, you should then be able to appear in an immigration court nearer to your home. The immigration attorney can help you present the best possible defense, and be at your side at subsequent hearings in immigration court.

Criminal Convictions and Their Effects

Apart from immigration violations, individuals holding green cards and visas can get into trouble for committing crimes. Lots of criminal acts have immigration implications far beyond the criminal sentence itself. For example, did you realize that crimes like shoplifting are considered to be crimes of moral turpitude? If you've got two or more of what immigration law sees as crimes of moral turpitude, you are subject to removal from the US. This is the case even if you happen to be an LPR (lawful permanent resident). Specified criminal offenses cause problems for individuals who are on nonimmigrant visas or green cards. The most widespread one is an alcohol related driving offense. For instance, if you are on an H-1B type visa and you receive a conviction for driving while intoxicated, your visa may very well be revoked. You'll then have to leave the United States of America and re-apply for your visa.

Immigration Advice for Criminal Pleas

Once you realize the correlation between immigration problems and criminal convictions, it's easy to see why if you're an immigrant or on a visa you need the services of an immigration attorney when faced with criminal charges. A competent immigration attorney will work alongside your criminal defense lawyer to build a plea agreement that will offer the best chance to retain your current immigration status. Such assistance can readily save you from arrest and having to appear in immigration court.

If it isn't possible to craft a plea ahead of your guilty plea, an experienced immigration attorney can help you if you are busted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and have immigration proceedings taken out against you. Green card holders who are LPRs, can put in for removal relief in immigration court. Putting forward this request is complex and involves a tremendous amount of evidence and facts. However, a request crafted correctly prevents ICE's removal of you from the United States of America.

In a Nutshell

With this comprehension of how one can get into immigration trouble in the United States, and the repercussions, you can see precisely how serious to you it can be. Precisely who wants to be apprehended by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and transferred miles to a detention center/prison, pending a hearing for bond? Now you have an understanding of the sort of trouble you might be in, you can see the need for a suitable immigration lawyer to reduce the immigration troubles.