Comments to the U.S. Sentencing Commission regarding proposed amendments to the sentencing guidelines.

Comments to the U.S. Sentencing Commission regarding proposed amendments to the sentencing guidelines.

There have been disturbing trends in the numbers of noncitizens who have been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) in state courthouses. The authors offer strategies that can help attorneys protect their clients and witnesses from being arrested or intimidated by ICE when they go to criminal court as well as noncriminal tribunals.

Brief of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and National Association of Federal Defenders as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent. 

Argument: 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv)’s criminalization of a person who “encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact” that it would be in violation of the law is unduly broad under the First Amendment.  The prohibition also violates the void-for-vagueness doctrine under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.  “Encouragement” and “Inducement” are indefinite terms and depend on subjective determinations.  This provides insufficient notice to the public and invites arbitrary and selective enforcement.  The statute’s failure to specify a mens rea for “encourages or induces” exacerbates this problem.  The statute would also chill First Amendment-protected speech. 

Comments to the U.S. Sentencing Commission regarding proposed amendments to the sentencing guidelines.

Letter to the U.S. Sentencing Commission regarding proposed amendments to the sentencing guidelines.

Letter to the U.S. Sentencing Commission regarding proposed 1997 Amendments.

Comments to the U.S. Sentencing Commission on proposed 1997 Emergency Amendments.

Philip Swaby’s plea-based conviction was overturned for ineffective assistance of counsel that arose from a seemingly small oversight – one that any attorney might have made unless he or she were anything less than ultra-careful.

Attorneys can use federal habeas corpus petitions to impose constitutional limitations on the detention and custody review practices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the immigration courts. Zoey Jones and Andrea Saenz share five lessons learned by an immigration public defender program that has filed habeas corpus petitions that have liberated clients and established significant case law concerning due process and the right to seek release from detention.

The concept of “zero tolerance” within the criminal justice system is nothing new. Zero-tolerance policies allow for a quick and easy method of criminalization that is contrary to an effective and moral criminal justice system.

Immigration Ivan Dominguez

The Department of Homeland Security, through its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division, aggressively pursues employers suspected of hiring and harboring illegal aliens. Matthew Leitman and Paul Hudson discuss several defenses and arguments available to employers facing immigration-related charges. They recommend that employers challenge ICE’s deportation of exculpatory witnesses and seek a narrow construction of the alien harboring statute.

Manuel Vargas is the recipient of NACDL's Lifetime Achievement Award. For years he has been a leader in the fight to protect the rights of noncitizens ensnared in the criminal justice system.

When a criminal defense attorney sees a drug or drug-related charge alleged against a noncitizen client, the attorney should immediately think of immigration consequences. The main defense strategies for drug cases are as follows, in order of preference: (1) avoiding a drug conviction entirely through dismissal or negotiation; (2) if a drug conviction is unavoidable, avoid an aggravated felony; (3) plead to a substance that is not federally controlled; or (4) create a vague record of conviction as to the substance if the state law is overbroad.