Huge congratulations are in order to a terrific Mayer Brown LLP Pro Bono Team for winning the first case under the Crim-Imm Pro Bono Project, ending their client’s deportation proceedings. Mayer Brown attorneys Marcus Christian, Catherine Bernard, Meytal McCoy, Joshua Silverstein, Louis Balocca, Francis Doorley, Oral Pottinger, Gretel Echarte, Valentina Castillo, Diego Perez, and paralegal Janie McCutchen successfully defended their 19-year-old green card holder client Jose* from deportation. The team pioneered a new type of case for CAIR Coalition, post-conviction relief entailing a petition for writ of habeas corpus before the Virginia Circuit Court. In winning this petition, the team vacated Jose's single conviction allowing him to maintain his green card and remain united with his U.S. citizen family in Virginia.
The team fought not one but three separate cases to defend Jose, who had fled death threats by gangs in El Salvador and years later faced deportation due to a single first-time misdemeanor drug possession offense. The Mayer Brown attorneys made efforts to identify all possible legal challenges to Jose's deportation stemming from his conviction. In doing so, the Pro Bono Team uncovered cutting-edge legal arguments by means of not only post-conviction relief but also a motion to terminate deportation proceedings and an asylum case.
In Virginia Circuit Court, the team prevailed on the petition for writ of habeas corpus on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel. Under Padilla v. Kentucky and Zemene v. Clarke, the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments require criminal defense attorneys to advise non-citizen clients of immigration consequences. Accordingly, the petition argued that Jose’s conviction was unconstitutional and must be vacated because his criminal attorney failed to advise him of the immigration consequences of his guilty plea.
In the motion to terminate litigation, the team argued that pursuant to the recent Supreme Court case Mellouli v. Lynch, the law does not allow the government to deport Jose due to his first-time offense drug possession statute. This meant that Jose's removal proceedings must be terminated. Through multiple supplemental briefs, the team pushed forward ground-breaking arguments on the categorical approach, the complex method of analysis required by the Supreme Court to analyze convictions in the immigration context.
Alongside extensive litigation for the post-conviction and termination claims, the team also identified and staffed an asylum claim for Jose through in-depth home country research. The asylum piece of the case made it even clearer that Jose's first time offense not only triggered disproportionate immigration consequences, but in reality had the impact of a death sentence. Every person in Jose's family told the team that if Jose were forced to return, the gangs would immediately kill him within two weeks.
By securing vacatur of Jose's conviction, the Mayer Brown team won the argument that Jose cannot be deported under law. The government immediately moved jointly to terminate proceedings. Within days, Jose was released from detention and reunified with his family. With much gratitude to the team at Mayer Brown, Jose will now be able to complete his GED, work to support his family, and continue his young adult life free from the persecution he faced in El Salvador.
