Crimmigration warning- Fairfax criminal lawyer warns non-United States citizens of possible trolling of immigration agents in your courthouse

Crimmigration warning (the first term means practicing criminal defense while helping to reduce adverse immigration consequences): If you are not a United States citizen, you may be subjected to the Trump administration’s expanded and aggressive actions to detain and deport a large population of non-citizens, which includes ICE-admitted visits to courthouses on targets’ criminal court dates. Furthermore, as a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that under the recently-enacted Laken Riley Act, if you are undocumented / without lawful status (U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) uses the phrase “illegal alien”) in the United States, you are subjected to immigration detention if you are a person” charged with, is arrested for, is convicted of, admits having committed, or admits committing acts which constitute the essential elements of any burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, or assault of a law enforcement officer offense, or any crime that results in death or serious bodily injury to another person.” The National Lawyers Guild has some great ideas for interpreting and defending against this Act as narrowly and beneficially as possible on behalf of the Act’s possible targets.

Crimmigration warning on the danger for non-U.S. citizens to visit a Virginia criminal court without a lawyer

Crimmigration warning: Now more than ever, non-U.S. citizen Virginia criminal defendants and the accused throughout the nation should beware of going to criminal court without a lawyer or being in any encounter with police or other law enforcement officers. The right Virginia criminal defense lawyer can be a lawful buffer between you and the authorities, can help you assert your right to remain silent and not to reveal your immigration status, and can help fully advocate for you. Because you may have such encounters without the presence of a criminal defense or other appropriate attorney, at the very least, review now the rights advice from the Virginia Legal Aid and Justice Center. This includes your right to remain silent, and your right not to open the door to your home without a lawfully issued warrant that allows entry into your home either explicitly or otherwise.

Will a deferred disposition or other Virginia criminal court result not resulting in the court’s convicting me still be treated as a conviction for immigration purposes?

The foregoing National Lawyers Guild’s guide to defending against the Laken Riley Act warns that immigration law’s definition of conviction “definition can include certain diversion, deferred prosecution, and similar resolutions.” Crimmigration warning: In Virginia, the foregoing list can include a disposition under Virginia Code § 19.2-298.02 and suspended imposition of sentence. Make sure your Virginia criminal defense lawyer understands the meaning and usefulness and risks of Crespo v. Holder,  631 F.3d 130 (4^th Cir. 2011) before pursuing any of the foregoing types of case dispositions. If you are a non-United States citizen in criminal court, you need a lawyer’s sound advice more than ever before for  deciding how to proceed with your criminal defense. Keep in mind that staying out of jail — and out of court and away from police in the first place –can be an important part of increasing your chances of staying away from ICE’s radar.

Crimmigration warning: Your immigration status is your own business

A law enforcement officer processing my client after a favorable court disposition told me that the processing form he was filling out required him to insert my client’s immigration status, and he assured that he would not report that information to anyone. (How does that information not get reported to someone, because the form is going to go somewhere.) Government forms do not erode your lawful right not to reveal your immigration status to anyone, whether protected by your Fifth Amendment Constitutional right to remain silent, your Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to Due Process, or otherwise. Crimmigration warning: The more you simply say “I am not answering questions” and “I want a lawyer”, the more possible it will be that you will stick with that assertion. If law enforcement asks why  you are asserting those rights, you have no obligation to answer that rather than reasserting “I am not answering questions” and “I want a lawyer.”

Should my judge ask my immigration status, and should my lawyer reveal that status to the prosecutor or judge?

In Virginia, judges often will ask the defendant during a guilty or no contest plea colloquy whether the defendant understands that their plea may lead to adverse immigration consequences. That question is appropriate and non-harmful. Crimmigration warning: The inappropriate question that some judges ask — and should not — is whether the defendant is a United States citizen, rather than simply skipping that question and asking the former question to everyone. When the latter happens, I smile and suggest to the judge that immigration status is confidential and that the judge’s goal can be achieved by simply advising that possible adverse immigration risks can be attendant to a disposition involving waiving one’s right to proceed to trial. Value can sometimes exist in addressing immigration risks with Fairfax prosecutors / assistant commonwealth’s attorneys and prosecutors in certain other jurisdictions for obtaining more favorable settlement / plea negotiations, and in telling immigration risks to the sentencing judge for a more favorable sentence. However, that must be balanced against the risk of disclosure to the wrong people if that information were to reach immigration authorities. Your courtroom is open to the public, and for anything said in your case or by you or your lawyer to reach ICE and anyone else. Even if a Fairfax prosecutor does not intend to reveal your immigration status, that does not automatically mean that a police officer hearing such information or an ICE agent in the courthouse will not use that information against you.

Must my Virginia criminal defense lawyer understand immigration law?

In Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010), the United States Supreme Court makes it a Sixth Amendment Constitutional duty for a criminal defense lawyer to be sufficiently knowledgeable of relevant immigration risks from the possible convictions, sentences and other dispositions that might befall their non-U.S. citizen clients. Crimmigration warning: Beyond Padilla, of course you want to minimize the immigration risks from a criminal conviction and sentence, whether you are looking for your criminal defense lawyer to have that fund of knowledge, or want your defense lawyer to team up with a lawyer who does. Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz has worked with great consulting immigration lawyers on well over one hundred criminal defense cases, and is able to put that to good use in presenting a risk analysis for you and in advocating for you.

Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz relentlessly pursues your best defense against Virginia DUI, felony and immigration prosecutions. Usually Jon Katz can meet with you within one business day of your contacting us, for a free in-person initial confidential consultation about your court-pending prosecution. Jon’s experienced staff will be delighted to assist you at 703-383-1100, Info@KatzJustice.com, and (text) 571-406-7268.