CASE: Cancellation of Removal
CLIENT: Guatemalan
LOCATION: Ohio
ISSUES: Obstruction of Justice Record, Physical Presence Evidence, Hardship
Our client retained our firm one week before his Individual Hearing. He had two attorneys before who withdrew their representation. For over a year he was unrepresented. Our client claims nobody would take their case for that time. Before he retained our firm, he merely mentioned that he filed for Cancellation of Removal and that his hearing was coming up on October 21, 2010 before the Cleveland Immigration Court.
For a non-permanent resident to be eligible for Cancellation of Removal, the alien must prove that s/he:
- Has been physically present in the U.S. continuously for ten years prior to the issue date of the Notice to Appear;
- Has been a person of good moral character;
- Has not been convicted of any crimes that would make her/him inadmissible;
- Her/his removal would cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to her/his U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse, parent, or child.
We took his case upon asking him questions regarding the above elements. We were not sure if his claim was strong. Our client did not have copies of anything he submitted.
The day after we were retained, we went to the Immigration Court in Cleveland for a file review of our client. We made copies of the file and assessed the strength of their case. We thought at that point it was weak. But we only had 6 days left, 4 business days.
On October 18, 2010, 3 days before our client’s Individual Hearing, pursuant to our client’s request, we filed a Motion for Continuance to allow our firm to prepare for the Individual Hearing and to allow him time to submit more supporting documents. As mentioned, he was not represented for over a year. It was a stretch because the hearing was in three days. Court rules require at least 15 days for pre-hearing motions, but we were only retained 7 days before and asked for Court discretion. We kept following up with the Court but there was no decision for the next two days, understandably so.
Preparing anyway for the Individual Hearing, our firm worked together with the client in the small time we had to prepare supplemental exhibits. We called them several times for supporting documents. The day before the Individual Hearing, there was still no decision on the Motion for Continuance. Our firm eventually was able to gather supporting documents and prepared Supplemental Evidence with 34 exhibits, and arranged them pursuant to the specific elements of Cancellation of Removal eligibility. We arranged the medical documents for each of the three daughters. We arranged all his physical presence documents according to the specific year they referred to, and filed them in person with the Cleveland Immigration Court. We also sent service in person with the Department of Homeland Security. There was no sense in mailing them – the hearing was the next day.
We then prepared the client for his hearing, worked overtime and went over questions several rounds for him and his three witnesses. We focused on the extreme and exceptional hardships his three US Citizen daughters and US Citizen wife would face. He did not have enough documents as to his physical presence, so we made sure he establishes them through his testimony, the supporting letters that he submitted, and through the consistency of his answers with the witnesses.
At the Individual Hearing, we first made an oral request for a continuance. We explained we were only retained 7 days before, were ready to proceed with testimony, but requested that a continuance be granted if the case would be denied due to some technicality or lack of documentation that could be obtained in a reasonable amount of time. Testimony then followed and we questioned the alien extensively on the hardships his children and wife would face. Our client was prepared, was very consistent, and was honest in his answers. He was detailed with the specific medical issues of each of his daughters. He had a conviction for obstruction of justice but we made sure all the facts are on record to establish that his offense was within the petty offense exception for crimes of moral turpitude, which means despite the conviction, he is still eligible for Cancellation of Removal.
We then proceeded with his US Citizen wife, who also did a good job in her testimony regarding the hardships she and her daughters would face if our client was deported to Guatemala.
At the conclusion of the hearing, the Judge granted Cancellation of Removal for our client. He once came illegally in July of 1998. He never had any status. He worked hard doing random work in factories and restaurants. He married a U.S. Citizen and had three US Citizen children. A good person, father, and husband, who finally retained an attorney for his Individual Hearing 7 days before its scheduled date. Finally, after 12 years of hard work and perseverance, our client is now a permanent resident (green card holder) of the United States.
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