ATTORNEY REQUESTS FEDERAL COURT ORDER
TO STOP I.N.S. DELAY ON CITIZENSHIP APPLICATION
The client went for his citizenship
interview 2 years ago. He passed the test and his citizenship
application was approved. The only thing that needed to be done in
order for him to become a citizen was for the I.N.S. to complete
their fingerprint check in order to get a security clearance. He
waited almost 2 years for the security clearance, but the I.N.S.
refused to do anything. To make matters worse, the client has a
spouse in Eritrea who has been waiting for years for him to become a
U.S. citizen; so she can come to join him in the U.S. After numerous
unsuccessful attempts to go to I.N.S. to get them to complete their
background check, we were forced to go to Federal Court. We filed
something called a Petition for a Writ of Mandamus with a Federal
District Court Judge in Los Angeles. We asked for a court order
against the I.N.S. to compel them to complete their security check.
Within 30 days after the petition was filed with the Federal Court
the I.N.S. agreed to cooperate and the client obtained his
citizenship.
MAN CAUGHT AT THE BORDER 5 TIMES WINS
DEPORTATION CASE
In 1998 our client, Mr. Huertas, was
stopped five times at the U.S./Mexico border for illegal entry into
the United States. Each time he was subjected to voluntary departure
back to Mexico. He was put into deportation proceedings in 2005 and
we were hired to represent him at that time. First, we were able to
obtain a bond in order for him to be released from custody.
When his deportation case was presented
to the immigration judge the trial lawyer for I.N.S. showed the
immigration judge numerous pictures of Mr. Huertas trying to sneak across the
border. This evidence made his case very difficult to win.
This was a very difficult deportation
case, but the client won. He has seven children who were all born in
the United States. We were able to show evidence he was a very
involved father and his children would suffer extreme and unusual
hardship if the father was deported. Based on that evidence the
immigration judge granted the case. The client now has his green
card.
WOMAN CHARGED WITH MARRIAGE FRAUD WINS
DEPORTATION CASE
This was a deportation case involving
charges of immigration fraud. Our client, Patricia Francis, M.D. was
put into deportation proceedings during her INS green card
interview. She admitted to the INS officer that her marriage to a
U.S. Citizen was not a bonafide marriage. Even though she suffered
horrible persecution in her country she did not apply for asylum
when she first arrived here. The reason was because she got bad
legal advice.
Dr. Francis was born in Pakistan and
dedicated her life to helping the poor. She is a board certified medical doctor
specializing in neurology. She worked as part of a Catholic mission
that helped provide medical treatment to orphans and the homeless.
There were members of a Muslim Mosque located across the street from
where Dr. Francis lived who constantly threatened her because she
was Catholic. In 1999 things escalated. Dr. Francis began receiving
death threats after she accidentally tore a Muslim religious poster
that was glued to the front gate of her home. The Muslim elders
considered this an act of blasphemy that should be punished by
death.
Things escalated rapidly after she tore
the Muslim religious poster. She began receiving calls at all hours
of the day. She was told she was going to be raped, tortured, burned
with acid and killed as punishment for what she had done. Shortly
after these threats began, her three dogs were poisoned and one of
her co-workers, who lived two blocks away, was murdered. In an attempt to save her
from being killed several member of her church helped her to go into
hiding. After a few weeks this effort became too risky. Dr. Francis
had no where to hide; so she fled to the United States.
After arriving in the United States Dr.
Francis met with an immigration lawyer to help her to apply for
asylum. This lawyer told her not to apply for asylum because nobody
would believe her story. He told her to go out and find a U.S.
Citizen to marry and apply for a green card that way. She did find a
U.S. citizen to marry, but they never lived together. Our office was
first retained after her marriage petition was denied and she was
put into deportation proceedings.
After a two year battle in the
immigration court the case recently went to trial. After hearing all
of the evidence, the immigration judge granted her application for
asylum. This was a very difficult case because she had already
admitted to committing fraud. On a happy note she will be receiving
her green card shortly, and as an added bonus Dr. Francis has passed
all of her medical boards. Soon she will be practicing medicine
again.
