Published on: Friday, November 13, 2020

For more than a decade, immigration cases have comprised a massive portion of the federal criminal docket, with reentry cases alone taking up 30.2% (23,846 filings) in the 12-month period ending June 30, 2020.  The Heartland Alliance's National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) recently published its Illegal Reentry Practice Advisory for Federal Defenders, by Sarah Rose Weinman, Hena Mansori, and Charles Roth (Oct. 2020). This Practice Advisory is intended as a resource and a guide for federal defense counsel handling immigration cases.

The advisory provides practical details from an immigration practitioner’s perspective about how to identify procedural and substantive errors in a defendant’s underlying removal proceeding.  Specifically, the advisory provides: (I) a summary of the elements of the offense of illegal reentry and of some elements-based defenses to the illegal reentry offense; (II) an overview of the removal process, different types of removal orders, and practical information on how to obtain immigration records; (III) a detailed discussion of the requirements for challenging an underlying removal order and grounds for such a challenge; (IV) a summary of sentencing issues; (V) a discussion of the possibility of defeating § 1326 charges through reopening at the administrative level; and (VI) a discussion of how to prevent a defendant from being removed upon resolution of the illegalreentry case.

Helpful Email and Phone Number for Potential Immigration Consequences of Pending Charges

The Defender Services Office has established a partnership with NIJC to provide training and resources to CJA practitioners around the country on immigration-related issues. Federal defenders and CJA panel attorneys can call NIJC's Defenders Initiative at (312) 660-1610 or e-mail defenders@immigrantjustice.org with questions regarding potential immigration issues affecting their clients. An NIJC attorney will respond to the inquiry within 24 business hours.