By Yolanda Vázquez I can remember where I was sixteen years ago when the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act went into effect. I was a public defender (PD) in Chicago. I had only been a PD for a little over a year. I was assigned to one of the three domestic violence courtrooms; a courtroom where the majority of the defendants were Spanish speaking non-citizens because I was one of the few Spanish speaking PDs in an office of 625 attorneys. Looking back, it was this moment in my life, that for better or worse, sealed my [...]

By Neil I. Fleischer As the son of an immigration attorney, I would often accompany my father to various speeches he would give regarding United States immigration law. He begins every speech by “stating that US immigration is the most complex law in our country. At any one time you can deal with three to five government agencies: the Department of Labor, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of State, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the US customs and Border Protection.” [Click here to see a list of all the symposium contributions.] He would always [...]

By Maurice Hew, Jr. It begs the question of judicial integrity and professional responsibility. The Sixth Amendment guarantees that every accused shall have the right to counsel for his defense. But, “the mere physical presence of…counsel is not enough: it is the marriage of the attorney’s legal knowledge and mature judgment with the defendant’s factual knowledge that makes for an adequate defense.” United States of America v. Smith, 640 F.3d 580 (4th Cir. 2011). Today, counsel’s knowledge must necessarily include the accused’s immigration objectives and must clearly communicate to the [...]