Question: I have been here in the U.S. since I was six years old. About 12 years ago, I committed a drug crime of possession for sale. I was sentenced to 4 months. Now, all these years later, I have been put into removal proceedings where INS is trying to deport me. I have been told that I am an aggravated felon and there is nothing I can do. I have further been told that I will most likely be deported away from my family including my U.S. Citizen spouse and three U.S. Citizen Children. I have never done anything else criminally and it was just a stupid mistake when I was young. I have changed, have a good job, a family with U.S. Citizens and many community ties. Is there anything I can do?

Answer: As the law stands now, there is very little you can do. This is a result of the 1996 laws which increased dramatically the laws on what was considered to be an aggravated felony. It has torn families apart for many years since 1996. People who have become long term residents in the U.S. and have their Green Cards found out it did not make any difference. They were still deported. Furthermore, they found out that they were barred from coming back into the U.S. for the rest of their lives. Congress has seen all the suffering caused by the unfair and anti-immigration laws of 1996 and just this week the House Judiciary Committee passed the 2002 Due Process Reform Bill. While it still must be passed by the Senate and signed by the President, it is an excellent step in giving back some of the due process rights lost by long term residents who were put in deportation proceedings because of various crimes.

Question: How does this particular bill help me?

Answer: Please note that the Senate might change some of the provisions, or the President might require some alternate items in the bill. However, as the bill stands now, it applies specifically to people who previously had their Green Cards. They were or are going to be placed into deportation or removal proceedings because of a crime they committed. They are considered to be an aggravated felons and do not qualify for the normal Cancellation of Removal.

Question: What is Cancellation of Removal?

Answer: Prior to this bill there was a section of the bill referred to as Cancellation of Removal for Certain Lawful Permanent Residents. Generally, you had to have your Green Card for at least five-years and be physically present in the U.S. for at least seven-years. Finally, and this is the item that disqualified numerous people, is that you cannot be convicted of an aggravated felony.

Question: What does the new bill allow?

Answer: Basically it deals with the Cancellation of Removal for people who have committed aggravated felonies. In the new bill, it expands the Cancellation of Removal so that it allows people whom have been convicted of aggravated felonies to still keep their Green Cards and stay in the U.S. It deals with three different scenarios. First, people who have been convicted of a non violent aggravated felony. Second, people who were convicted of a violent aggravated felony. Finally, people who have been convicted of an aggravated felony and came to the U.S. as a young child. Each of these provisions allows a person to remain in the U.S. and to not be deported if the Judge grants the Cancellation of Removal. Therefore, this is a very big step toward restoring some of the harsh anti-immigrant provisions of the 1996 law. Hopefully, this trend will continue so that families can be reunited and the tearing apart of immigrant families will stop.

Immigration Law was established because many foreigners wanted to come to the United States to have a better life and they needed to have a standard of law. In the beginning of the countries history there was a open door policy towards immigrants and anybody could come to have a new life. But then in the late 1800’s they started limiting certain groups from coming in and these were mainly savory characters looking for trouble. By the early 20’s the Us had a quota system and this further produces Immigration Law.

Many people that are in the Us need to have a Immigration Lawyer so that they can keep there green card status up to date. If you visa expires you can be asked to leave the country so it is important that you find an attorney that has the knowledge you need to help you stay in the country legally.

If you are found to not have the proper documents to be in this country then you can be deported and sent back to the country of your birth. It is important that you understand how Immigration Law works so that you can obtain citizenship is you are looking to stay in the U.S.

Remember that it is important for you to be legal so that you do not get deported back to your country of birth. You need to understand the Immigration Law’s of this country so you know what you need to do to gain citizenship. It is also a good idea for you to find a good Immigration Lawyer that has the experience you need to help you out. This type of law has been around for a long time and is basically to protect the citizens of this country.

Immigration: Immigration means migration into place, especially to a country for the purpose of permanent residence. It is a biological and modern phenomena. The immigration concept is related to development of citizenship law. A person who migrates to the country to settle there permanently is commonly known as immigrant. He is the person who is not born in the country where want to settle permanently. They are the legal workers who have legal status or permit to work. The increase in immigrants, enlarge the community. In brief we can say that immigration is entrance of an individual into a new environment. This process is different from the emigration and migration. International organization of migration conclude that there are more than 200 million migrants across the world today. The country hosted largest number of immigrants is Europe with 70.6 million people. Most of the migrant workers come from Asia now a days.

Push and Pull factors: The immigration theory is distinguished between a push and pull factor. Push factor refers to emigration from the country of origin. Push factor include escape from poverty and pull factor is availability of jobs. There are many reasons for migration of people. The pull factor for which people migrates include migration for education, work or for getting specialization in particular field. Some people migrates from landed(rich) countries to countries having better climate. The push factor include torture, risks during war, mass destruction etc. Some migrates because of their personal relationship like family. An individual may emigrate to new country to change the nationality. One of the reason of immigration is escape from illegitimate code.

Barriers: There are many barriers come in the process of immigration. These are either legal, natural or social barriers. Legal barriers include the problems related to rules and regulations of immigrations. Natural or social barriers include immigrants leave their own country, their family, friends, culture. In the new country there may be many uncertainties like where to live, finding work, understanding rules and regulations, law of that country. Immigrants have to start their lives from starting in the new country. They have to adapt the culture of that country to live there. Each country defined its law of immigration to prevent immigrants

Particularity in Immigration rules: Immigration rules vary from country to country. Each country is very particular about their rules of immigration. The countries which grant permission to move freely is targeted individuals to produce the net economic gain for the host country. Some countries allow little or no restrictions on movement. Such countries target individuals to produce their net income. In this way they improve their economic conditions while on the other hand some countries immigration process is very selective. These countries usually given preference to educated, skilled and wealthy immigrants. They normally refused those immigrants who are unskilled, poor and illiterate or low level educated. These restrictions are mainly by wealthy states. They usually neglect unskilled immigrants. But there are some countries who demands unskilled labor worker. This contradiction is one of the common factor of illegal immigration.