Immigration Defense Strategies: Lessons from the Criminal Defense Context

2021 Annual NLG Convention Virtual CLE Seminar

Immigration Defense Strategies: Lessons from the Criminal Defense Context

Wednesday, October 13, 2021 - 10:45 AM - 3:30 PM (ET)

Thursday, October 14, 2021 - 11:45 AM - 5:00 PM (ET)

Zoom Webinar

This program will be presented over Zoom Webinar 

- AGENDA -

Wednesday, October 13, 2021 (DAY 1): What Can Immigration Practitioners Adopt or Incorporate from Criminal Defense Practice?

10:45 AM – 11:00 AM     Welcome

11:00  AM - 11:15 AM      Background & Framing: Holding Immigration Courts and Government Attorneys to a Higher Standard

                                            15 minutes of instruction (0.25 CLE Credits)

This session will provide a brief overview of the many well-documented deficiencies in immigration court procedure and practice, including systemic racism, lack of due process, dehumanizing treatment of people appearing in court, and the lax standard to which these courts hold government attorneys, and the importance of focusing on strategies that help attorneys fight zealously for our clients and hold the government to a higher standard. The session will also discuss how aggressive litigation tactics can help draw attention to due process principles in immigration court and can help import or institutionalize greater protections in the immigration context.

Faculty:         

• Sirine Shebaya, Executive Director, National Immigration Project (NIPNLG)

11:15 AM - 1:15 PM:         Constitutional Principles and Procedure in Criminal Court

                                             120 minutes of instruction (2.00 CLE Credits)

This panel will provide an overview of Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment principles that undergird criminal court procedures, as well as a step-by-step guide to criminal procedure in comparison with typical immigration court procedure. The panel will set the stage for more in-depth instruction on each of these principles over the course of the two-day CLE.

Faculty:         

• C arlos Moctezuma Garcia, Member, García & García Attorneys at Law, P.L.L.C.
• Javier Maldonado, Law Office of Javier Maldonado, P.C.
• Matthew Vogel, Senior Staff Attorney, National Immigration Project (NIPNLG) 

1:15 PM - 1:45 PM:           Break

1:45 PM - 3:15 PM:          Fourth Amendment Issues in Immigration Court: A Deep Dive into Motions to Suppress

                                             90 minutes of instruction (1.50 CLE Credits)

This panel will cover the principles, standards, and nuts and bolts of motions to suppress in immigration court, with a focus on how and where immigration practitioners may be able to use motions to suppress to good effect in their litigation practice. The panel will focus primarily on motions to suppress for Fourth Amendment violations, but will also briefly cover arguments under the Fifth Amendment as well as those based on regulatory violations.

Faculty:         

• Veronica Barba, Founding Partner, Lucas & Barba, LLP
• Maureen Sweeney, Law School Professor and Faculty Director of the University of Maryland Carey Law School’s Chacón Center for Immigrant Justice
• Claudia Valenzuela, Managing Attorney, Immigrant Legal Defense

3:15 PM - 3:30 PM:          Closing and Announcements

Thursday, October 14, 2021 (DAY 2): Creative Strategies for Taking Your Removal Defense to the Next Level

11:45 AM - 12:00 PM:      Welcome to Day 2

12:00 PM - 1:15 PM:         Fifth Amendment Issues in Immigration Court: Raising the Bar for What Counts as Basic Due Process

                                              75 minutes of instruction (1.25 CLE Credits)

This panel will tackle key Fifth amendment issues as they tend to show up in immigration court proceedings. The panel will begin with a broad overview of Fifth Amendment protections in the criminal context and differences from the immigration court context. The panel will then delve more deeply into specific topics including: self-incrimination and admission-based grounds of inadmissibility; strategic decisions about bond proceedings and admissions in immigration court; objections and motions practice relating to open criminal charges (making a record with objections/motions; motions in limine; motions to continue to allow completion of the criminal case before the individual hearing proceeds; when and how to incorporate letters from defense counsel in proceedings; what to do when the government fails to produce a client for criminal proceedings; habeas actions); and challenging the impartiality of an immigration judge in certain situations.

Faculty:         

• Andrea Garcia, Immigration Specialist Public Defender, Law Offices of the Public Defender Riverside County
• Kara Hartzler, Appellate Attorney, Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc.
• Ellen Pachnanda, Attorney in Charge, New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) and the Brooklyn Defender Services
• Ben Winograd, Attorney, Immigrant & Refugee Appellate Center, LLC

1:15 PM - 1:30 PM:             Break

1:30 PM - 2:45 PM:           Federal Rules of Evidence and Evidentiary Issues in Immigration Court

                                               75 minutes of instruction (1.25 CLE Credits)

This panel will provide an overview of key federal rules of evidence and their applicability, persuasiveness, a d importance in the immigration court context, including issues such as authentication, preserving evidence, making and responding to objections, and preserving evidentiary issues for appeal. The panel will then do a deep dive on challenging the government's reliance on police reports in immigration court and on subpoenas and creative discovery motions that can be made in the immigration context.

Faculty:         

• Rex Chen, Immigration Director, Legal Services NYC
• Carolina Guiral Cuervo, Senior Staff Attorney, Family and Immigration Unit of Bronx Legal Services, a program of Legal Services NYC
• Raha Jorjani, Supervising Immigration Defense Attorney, Office of the Alameda County Public Defender in Oakland
• Homero Lopez, Legal Director, Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy (ISLA)

2:45 PM - 3:15  PM:            Break

3:15 PM - 4:15 PM:              Sixth Amendment Principles: Confrontation Clause Issues and Adopting a Public Defender Approach to Immigration Defense

                                                 60 minutes of instruction (1.00 CLE Credits)

This session will expand further upon the confrontation clause as it applies in immigration and criminal court. The panel will discuss ways to challenge the admissibility of hearsay evidence, and emerging arguments as to why police and ICE officers should be required to testify. The panel will also cover some criminal defense strategies and cross-examination techniques that can help immigration attorneys to aggressively litigate every possible defense or form of relief for clients.

Faculty:         

• Mary Holper, Associate Clinical Professor, Associate Dean for Experiential Learning, and Director of the Immigration Clinic, Boston College Law School
• Cristina Velez, Senior Staff Attorney, National Immigration Project (NIPNLG)
• Wendy Wayne, Founder and Director, Immigration Impact Unit at the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS)

4:15 PM - 4:30 PM:              Break

4:30 PM - 5:45 PM:              Mitigation and Participatory Defense Strategies

                                                  75 minutes of instruction (1.25 CLE Credits)

This panel will provide a basic orientation to mitigation practice and how it can be used in immigration court, strategies from the criminal sentencing context, and a list of contexts where mitigation or sentencing style proceedings could be useful in the immigration context. The panel will also provide a deep dive into narrative and media strategies, how to highlight and empower clients to tell their stories, and effective ways to discuss strategy with clients to enable them to fully participate in their own defense.

Faculty:         

• Sophia Elena Gurulé, Policy Counsel, Immigration Practice, The Bronx Defenders
• Gabriela Kahrl, Associate Director, Chacón Center for Immigrant Justice at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law
• Hena Mansori, Attorney Supervisor, Immigration Unit at the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender

5:45 PM - 6:00 PM:              Closing & reflections

CLE Credits 

The State Bar of Texas and the Washington State Bar Association have approved this CLE for 8.5 credit hours.

8.5 CLE credit hours are pending with the Virginia State Bar, the Bar State of California.

Registration Fees 

• $150.00  -  Nonprofit/Legal Worker 1 day
• $225.00  -  Nonprofit/Legal Worker 2 days
• $225.00  -  Private Attorney Members (NIPNLG, NLG, or Minority Bar Associations) 1 day
• $350.00  -  Private Attorney Members (NIPNLG, NLG, or Minority Bar Associations) 2 days
• $275.00  -  Private Attorney (non-member) 1 day
• $425.00  -  Private Attorney (non-member) 2 days

CLE Sponsored by 

The National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild 

Questions? 

Please send inquiries about the CLE to events@nipnlg.org