Deportation and Removal Defense

If you or a member of your family has been scheduled for a deportation or removal hearing, your attorney will need to understand the most effective strategies to successfully fight removal. We understand that many immigrants to the United States don't have an option to return to their home country. We make sure that every piece of evidence and legal strategy is part of your removal defense.

Deportation and removal takes place before an immigration judge in U.S. Immigration Court. In Denver, there are currently six immigration judges. There is a large immigration jail in the Denver area known as the GEO Detention Center and two of the judges work full time handling deportation cases of detained individuals at GEO. There is also an immigration court located in downtown Denver where four judges preside over the immigration cases of non-detained individuals. Appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) and federal courts are sometimes necessary for individuals to obtain relief.

What is a Removal Proceeding?

Removal proceedings, whether based on inadmissibility or deportability, affect the ability of a person to remain in the United States. Deportation affects people who are already in the United States, either legally or illegally, by forcing them to leave. Grounds of inadmissibility, by contrast, prohibit a person from entering the United States in the first place.

Immigration violations, as well as criminal convictions, can result in deportation, ineligibility for relief from removal, and being barred from naturalization. Deportation and exclusion proceedings have been combined into a single proceeding called a "removal" proceeding.
There are six broad categories or grounds for deportation.  They include:

1. Entering the country without proper authority.
2. Status violators who violate the terms of their admission or work without permission.
3. Persons with a broad range of criminal convictions.
4. Persons who are members of certain prohibited organizations.
5. Certain people who become public charges within five years of entering the U.S.
6. People whose asylum applications have been denied or referred to an Immigration Judge.