It is never acceptable to commit a criminal offense. However, if you are someone with immigrant visa status, you may risk more in doing so than a United States citizen would. That is, not only are you up against significant time in a confinement facility, but once your sentence is over, you may no longer have a legal presence in the country. This is if the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) successfully executes an immigration detainer against you. That said, please read on to discover what it means to face an immigration detainer and how one of the Lancaster, PA deportation defense lawyers at Lupton Law LLC will do everything possible to get you to stay.
Why was an immigration detainer placed against me?
Just when you are about to be released from the jail, prison, or confinement facility you are being held at, you may get word from local law enforcement that ICE has placed an immigration detainer against you. This is essentially a request for local law enforcement to notify them about your scheduled release date or to hold you for up to 48 hours beyond your release date.
Unfortunately, this gives them enough time to take you into their custody while you are still in a secure, controlled environment, rather than conducting an arrest when you are at large in the public community. That way, they do not need to expend government resources and taxpayer dollars to track you down, and they can hopefully execute this action more safely.
Now, the reason ICE wants to arrest you in the first place is because they may have probable cause to believe that you are deportable from the United States. This is likely because your criminal conviction makes you a public safety or national security threat. Or, your time spent incarcerated counted towards your allotted visa stay, and you no longer have a valid status in the country.
What happens after an immigration detainer is executed?
You may get arrested by ICE and immediately placed in an immigration detention center, pending your deportation proceedings. Now, ICE officials may use their discretion on whether or not to release you on bond or keep you detained throughout your proceedings. This may be based on your public safety or national security risk, flight risk, immigration status, etc.
Of course, from here, you may have to defend why you should be permitted to stay in the United States before an immigration court. Here, you may use defenses such as asylum, waivers of inadmissibility and deportability, deferred action, etc. Of note, having had an immigration detainer placed against you should not affect the outcome of your case.
The first step toward preparing yourself for this legal action is to retain the services of one of the competent Lancaster, PA deportation defense lawyers. Look no further than Lupton Law LLC.
