Saving Families from Deportation
In this video, immigration attorney, Andres Mejer shares how he helped clients get their green cards and avoid deportation. One of these clients was in the United States without legal status.
Transcript (Transcripción):
Andres Mejer: Now. Let me give you two examples. Of immigrants that were inadmissible because they had an order of deportation. Two different scenarios. We filed for two different sets of waivers and both of them today have their Green Card. So let’s talk about Irma obviously. Like I always say the names I’m using are not real but the cases are. These two are my clients who I helped and I’m going explain to you how we help them. So Irma. Pastor brought her to us days before she had to present herself for ice. The note said Bring your tickets you’re gone you need to leave the US. She had five kids three born in the US. Now she was in here undocumented under the radar. Went back to her home country to get to bring her kids was caught and her two other kids was caught at the border. All three of them were put in removal proceedings were allowed to come in. She didn’t appear for court she and those two kids were giving orders of removal. She went to a prior attorney and got some really stupid advice and that’s it. Yeah. Don’t go to court. Your just going to get deported. Well that’s exactly what happened when she didn’t go to court. She got deported. She actually had a pretty strong case for a vote for asylum but she lost it when she didn’t file timely within a year. No one. And when she didn’t present herself of court and was given an order of deportation. Really really stupid advice. Unfortunately not all attorneys are the same. Now as it so happens the oldest of her five kids was a victim of a really heinous crime here in the U.S.. This same attorney applied for the U visa for the victim,who was a minor, and then derivative to him was mom and his younger sister, because he was under 21, his mom and his sister can both qualify, even though even though they weren’t direct victims he was.Now, this attorney royally screwed up.
Andres Mejer: She didn’t submit adequate proof that mom was Mom. I don’t know how she did it but she sent the wrong path for the wrong person to forget it had the wrong information and USCIS reviewed it and said Hold on a second we’re requesting more evidence because this birth certificate has nothing to do with these people. Please give us the real birth certificate. She never responded. Her U Visa petition was denied for mom and sister. For oldest son who was the victim of the crime. He qualified not only did he qualify, he actually got his U visa and mom Irma was presenting herself to ice once a year every year with you know and they would ask what’s going on and she would say my attorney did this, my attorney did that. Her attorney didn’t do squat at the end of the day. Trump came ICE said you know what.
Andres Mejer: You’ve had six years, sorry five years. We’re not giving you any more time. Come back with your tickets and you’re gone. Came to us two days before we evaluated. We went with her to the ice officer. They gave her more time. We filed a new U visa petition. The visa was already current, because she was derivative to her son’s petition, and it’s on a petition was already approved. So we knew there was a visa. We knew she qualified. All they need to do is was prove the mother and son relationship. In every scenario we know who the mother is.
Andres Mejer: We don’t always know who the father is, the father others in some countries don’t always register the children. I’ve talked about in this in this program in the past about a client of mine who was married to a U.S. citizen ultimately got divorced but his Green Card went right after he goes Green Card. He went to visit to his home country was meeting with his family met one of her sister’s death friends.
Andres Mejer: They had a really good time that night, a couple of days later he came back to the US.
Andres Mejer: Ten years go goes by that sister’s best friend has a 10 year old son dies of cancer and tells his sister your brother is the father of my child. He had no idea he even had a child. He had no idea she was pregnant. He goes he applies for son brings him in they’re together. Now, obviously the son if you look at the birth certificate it didn’t include the name of the Father. Father didn’t even know he legitimized that relationship. It is his son and his son is now Green Card holder and probably soon probably by now or any U.S. citizen, just like Dad.
Andres Mejer: So we filed the new petition. We went with it to Ice because she had an order of deportation. ICE rushed the review of the case. It was approved and because the visa was already available because their son had already had U Visa for years. She was able to get the U visa now son can now apply for residency for his Green Card children already. But we were waiting for mom’s situation to be resolved. So the fact that she had an order of deportation was overcome by the waiver that the U visa includes. Let me give you another example of Jorge and Maria. Here we have to do multiple waivers. Jorge came to the US from the Dominican Republic. He filed for asylum after a couple of hearings. He didn’t appear and he was ordered deported. Years later married a U.S. citizen, he was pulled over by the police and they found his order of deportation. They detained him. His wife contacted us. We did was called a stay of removal , stopped the deportation. It allowed him to come out of detention under certain conditions. Initially it was an ankle monitoring. Ultimately we got that to go away. Wife was a U.S. citizen. They were married. She filed for him for four I-130, It’s called immediate relative petition. We got that approved. Then we had to file for a waiver an I 212 specifically, because we had to overcome the order of removal. We did the I 212, got that approved. Once that was approved we then had to file the unlawful presence waiver, the provisional lawful presence waiver. So when he came to us he was. He was inadmissible to the U.S. for two reasons. It was he had an order of deportation which he failed to appear. Automatically five years he can’t adjust, no waiver for that, but he was past five years so we didn’t have to worry about that. We just had to worry about the fact that there was an order of removal. Second was he entered without permission and he was here for more than one year. So if he leaves he is inadmissible for 10 years. So two things. We filed the first waiver the I 212 to overcome the order of removability. Once that was approved we then filed the 601-a waiver to overcome the unlawful presence. It’s stupid. It would have been a much easier much more if we could have filed for both same time but because the way the law is we could not. So we had to file for one wait four months then for the other wait four months. Then he consulate process. That means he he got an appointment at the US Embassy in he usually his home country, doesn’t always have to be. He went he was interviewed and he was allowed to come back in as a Green Card holder. So order of removal still exists but now it’s been waived and now he’s a Green Card holder. Now, when this process started his wife was expecting a child. Now they have three kids. It took years. It took thousands and thousands of dollars. No question about it probably over twenty thousand over twenty five during those five years. Multiple ice visits, multiple motions, multiple interviews with immigration, not to mention filing fees, leaving the US come back ,doctors experts. It was complicated, but at the end of the day he’s a green card holder.
Andres Mejer: Thank you very much for this and to a program. Don’t forget to please Subscribe at the bottom and if you have any question and hit like if you have any questions or any issues you want us to talk about on this program. I’m happy to do that. Just send me a message privately or otherwise.
