Discussion Points for Punto Legal –October 30, 2019

Discussion Points for Punto Legal –October 30, 2019

 

1. New Spanish-speaking criminal defense lawyer.

We have a new Spanish-speaking criminal defense abodgado. His name is Brian Roche. Brian is fluent in Spanish. He has seen a lot of criminal cases as a public defender in Denver. And he served as prosecutor in Eagle County. Working as a prosecutor actually makes you a better defense lawyer. Now you can hire a lawyer who is ready to defend you and explain everything to you in Spanish.

2. El Salvador TPS.

The Trump administration said Monday that it will extend the temporary work permits of 200,000 Salvadorans living in the United States. This announcement reverses course on President Trump’s earlier vow to deport them.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said it arrived at its revised decision on TPS for Salvadorans after considering the possible consequences of mass deportations back to El Salvador.

In fact, the one year extension is part of a deal between the U.S. and El Salvador to curb asylum seekers from El Salvador.

Salvadorans who have TPS protection would have their work permits extended through Jan. 4, 2021.

The legal details of the one year extension still have to be announced. For example, we don’t know if people will have to re-new their TPS status.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the deportations of Salvadorans with TPS last year, ordering the government to uphold TPS for those nationals until the litigation is resolved.

Many Salvadorans with TPS fear returning to a country that ranks among the most dangerous in the world, a nation that long has experienced high rates of poverty, corruption and gang violence. Salvadorans also send home billions of dollars a year to relatives, a critical infusion that helps keep the economy afloat.

If you have TPS and can fix your papers through a spouse or 21-year-old child or anyone else, you need to seriously consider traveling to El Salvador and back on an advance travel document. Then you can fix your papers in the U.S. through a process called adjustment of status.

3. Success story.

I want to share a success story with you. We have a client from Mexico named Rosa. Rosa came to the U.S. with her daughter in 2007. They came without inspection. She married a U.S. citizen who filed an immigration petition for her. Rosa had more than one year of unlawful presence in the U.S. and was unable to fix her papers in the U.S. In other words, she had to go back to the U.S. Consulate in Juarez to fix her papers. Her departure from the U.S. would trigger a waivable 10-year bar to entry. So she needed an I-601A provisional waiver. We obtained the waiver for her. When she went to her interview, the Consulate found she had engaged in alien smuggling by bringing her daughter into the U.S. [Rosa had told us that the father of the child had brought the child to the U.S. after she came to the U.S. And, yes, ladies and gentlemen, bringing you own child into the U.S. is alien smuggling.] Now Rosa needed a waiver for alien smuggling and unlawful presence. Her I-601A waiver was no longer any good. [In the meantime, we fixed Rosa’s daughter’s papers in Juarez. We could fix the daughter’s papers because Rosa’s husband was the daughter’s step-father.] We prepared a second waiver for alien smuggling and unlawful presence. We had to show that Rosa’s U.S.-citizen husband would suffer an extreme hardship if Rosa could not return to the U.S. The waiver was granted. On Monday, Rosa went to her second interview at CDJ and was granted permanent residence.

4. Health Insurance Proclamation.

President Trump’s health insurance proclamation goes into effect on November 3. This means that spouses and children of resident fixing their papers in CDJ will have to prove they are covered by health insurance within 30 days of entry into the U.S. Immigrants will be asked by consular officers if they will be covered by health insurance and will have to fill out a new form. Already some Colorado insurance agencies are taking steps to sell the necessary insurance. The proclamation does apply to spouses of citizens, but not the children of citizens. Today, the American Immigration Lawyers’ Association filed a lawsuit to block the health care proclamation.

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