The United States Supreme Court has not always made the best decisions regarding the rights of Immigrants in either immigration or criminal courts. However, the recent decision in Padilla v. Kentucky does go a long way to insure the rights of aliens in criminal proceedings. What the Court holds is that criminal attorneys are required to provide competent immigration advice to criminal clients:
It is our responsibility under the Constitution to ensure that no criminal defendant—whether a citizen or not—is left to the “mercies of incompetent counsel.” Richardson, 397 U. S., at 771. To satisfy this responsibility, we now hold that counsel must inform her client whether his plea carries a risk of deportation. Our longstanding Sixth Amendment precedents, the seriousness of deportation as a consequence of a criminal plea, and the concomitant impact of deportation on families living lawfully in this country demand no less.
Because of this, there will likely be a large amount of cases reopened for the ineffective assistance of criminal attorneys who did NOT provide information about a plea agreements' impact on their immigration status. This kind of motion could lead to a new criminal or immigration proceedings, to allow aliens a chance to reconsider the plea agreement with full knowledge of the immigration consequences.
For this reason, it is vitally important that all immigrants (including those with no status, some status, or permanent residence), and all criminal attorneys who have cases involving immigrants, contact competent immigration counsel to determine what the impact of a proposed plea agreement will be. This is something that I have a lot of experience with, and would be happy to discuss with criminal counsel or immigrants in criminal proceedings. Click on the "Contact Us" tab above for information.
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