Discussion Points for Punto Legal- February 24, 2016

This week I got involved with a case involving a notaria who performed immigration work for Latino immigrants.

1. A Mexican woman is married to a United States citizen. She has two children who were born in the United States. One of her children is very sick. The child gets care at the Children’s Hospital in Denver because he has a number of complicated disorders. Her husband is the children’s step-father. This couple went to a notaria who advised them that the wife was eligible for the provisional, or stateside, waiver. She wasn’t. The notaria did the paperwork to set up an appointment at the United States Consulate in Ciudad Juarez. She also submitted a provisional waiver. The wife got an appointment for a consular interview in Juarez and the notaria told her to go, even though her provisional waiver had not yet been approved. When the wife went to her consular interview, she was barred for 10-years because she had already triggered the hard, 10-year bar to entry. She was also barred for alien smuggling. Now this woman is faced with having to re-enter the United States illegally to return to her sick child and family. The notaria made the following mistakes:First, she did not properly screen her clients for bars to entry. If she had, she would have learned about the bars to entry and known the women was NOT eligible for a provisional waiver.Second, she did not reschedule the interview in Ciudad Juarez, which she could have done. She could have rescheduled the interview until the provisional waiver was decided. The immigration service may have denied the waiver because they found out about the bars to entry. This would have spared the women from being stuck in Mexico.
2. I want to talk about DAPA-Deferred Action for Parental Accountability. This is the program for the immigrant parents of children born in the United States, which was blocked by the judge in Texas in a case called Texas v. The United States. The Supreme Court has decided to review the case. I expect this case will be argued in late April. I expect the case will be decided in late June 2016. I expect the Government will win. I think there are 5 or 6 votes for the Government in this case. The death of Justice Antonin Scalia will not affect the decision. If I am right, the President will implement DAPA during his last 6 months in office. DAPA will then become a major issue in the presidential campaign.