Transcript:

Hello, I’m Scott Berry, one of your co-hosts for the Immigration Nation Podcast. Kleine Powell is producing today. She’s behind the camera. So we’ve got Lucine Aghajanyan today. Welcome, Lucine. Thank you, Scott. Tell them a little bit about yourself. Hello! I’m Lucine Aghajanyan, co-owner and founder of LT Global Practice Management. Thank you for being with us today. We have a special guest to talk about motions to reopen, Asma Din. Thank you for joining us. Hi. Thank you for having me, Scott. Our pleasure. We’re very excited because especially in Texas right now, this is such a big issue and you’re perfect to talk to it. Tell them a little bit about your firm. So I am the owner and operator of Din Law Group. I have been practicing exclusively immigration law for 12 years. My primary areas of specialty are complex deportation defense, motions to reopen and complex family based cases. So immigration law, it’s a very complicated and fast moving area of the law. So it is very important to me to be able to help my clients navigate this complicated process with the— I like to take the stress out of their minds when it comes to these complicated issues. This is a very stressful time for people that have immigration issues in our country right now. And to be able to resolve everyone’s issues, any issue, you have to be passionate about what you do or you’ve been receiving a lot of phone calls specifically about motions to reopen. And you’ve been very successful in getting those approved and getting them through. And you have been able to help and assist a lot of immigrants that’s been stuck in the process. Can you tell us a little bit about how you handle emotions to reopen and what is your process? What’s it look like? So a motion to reopen is asking either a immigration court or the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen and basically remove somebody’s order of deportation that they have. So it is a very important mechanism for people who have deportation orders. One very important thing about motions to reopen is that there is a time limit in which you have to typically file one, and there’s also a numbers limit. Most of the time you are limited to filing one motion to reopen. So, these are very stressful for people because you have to try to get it right that first time. So the strategy always is to put the best arguments forward in that motion, however many basis you can file that motion under, the better you want to give that client the best shot possible to get it right that first time. What do they need to come with? What are the elements of motion to reopen? How would someone think of— “can I have a deportation order and I heard about motion to reopen?” Is there any prep work that they need to do prior to coming to you? Yes. So, I would like a copy of, for instance, their file, if they have it with immigration. If not, that is something that, they can definitely seek our help in obtaining. But we also want to do a very extensive intake with them in a consultation with them to find out exactly what happened that led to them getting that removal order and what has happened since. Maybe their circumstances have changed. Maybe they’re now married to a U.S. citizen and they now have a basis of relief. And so we want to get all of those details ready so that we can put that all into our motion, attach the necessary documents. So in the event that someone, at one point told them that they have no relief, and then all of a sudden now they have new circumstances, new evidence. So come to Asma, she’ll figure out the way to get you that motion to reopen filed and get it all resolved. Absolutely I love these. These are my one of my favorite types of cases because, people come to us in the most stressful situation of their lives. I mean, they have essentially a target on their back because of this deportation order. And so whatever I can do to alleviate that stress and hopefully get them to be able to fix their status. I mean, that is just amazing. Asma, what’s happening now in the immigrant community, what’s causing the interest right now? So I think it’s a few different things. Firstly, we are in an election year, so a lot of people want… I think there’s just the stress of the unknown, and they want to get these motions filed, before maybe there’s a change in administrations, maybe there’s a change in policy. So while these motions are still being granted for depending on the facts, clients have feel that urgency to want to file. A second thing that has been happening also that I feel like has been moving people towards wanting to do this is, with some of the changes, things that they weren’t previously eligible for instance, Biden’s parole program for spouses, they now are a lot of people are eligible for it, but for a prior deportation order. So, step one, in being able to fix your status, if you have a deportation order, is to try to get that deportation order to go away. Well do something for us real quick? Because anyone who’s listening so far, there will be people that have say, “wait, I might actually qualify for this. This might be relative to me”. I’m assuming that you have to qualify a little bit. Not everyone is going to be able to get the motion to reopen? So just talk about that. If someone thinks this might be a fit for them, just kind of summarize like how they qualify and to be a fit for this. So there are several basis by which you can file a motion to reopen. And keep in mind, like I explained earlier, there are bars that they put in place time limit bars and also number bars. So, if somebody has already previously tried, it’s possible that they might not be eligible a second time, but we would have to do kind of an extensive intake in that situation to see if they might be eligible. But some things that we do during the consultation to figure out whether or not they have a good basis to file is, we get details about how they got that deportation order. Did they miss a court date that they didn’t know about? So if they did, the court is supposed to notify them. There are requirements for an immigration court to notify an individual about their immigration court date, and if so, they might be a good candidate for a motion to reopen based on no notice. And then similarly, I sometimes have people who come to me, and it’s very terrible but they were maybe in a very abusive relationship or marriage during that time period where they missed our court date. Sometime the abuser did not take them to their court date. And so that could also maybe be some facts that could help with a motion to reopen. Another basis is changed country conditions. A lot of times your country, maybe your country conditions weren’t bad initially when you filed for asylum and maybe you lost your case and that’s how you got your removal order. But unfortunately, now maybe your country conditions have gotten so much worse and you fear that you would now be persecuted. So that could also be another basis to seek a motion to reopen. Another common one that I see often is, a lot of people, they get deportation orders because of a criminal conviction. And they go years and years later and get that either vacated, that conviction vacated, or they get a pardon by a governor. And in those cases, you can also go in and reopen. So those are just some common factual scenarios that I’ve seen in my practice where we’ve been successful, getting cases reopened. I’m sitting here thinking about someone who might just be an average legal consumer and it’s super clear to you, but for just like an average person, this is kind of overwhelming. Is there any misunderstandings about the motion to reopen or myths or things that we can maybe clear up for people? I think one big myth is that these motions have to be filed with the immigration court only. And that is a big mistake that I even sometimes see honestly, practitioners make. The motion actually gets filed with the last body who made a decision on the case. So sometimes that is actually the Board of Immigration Appeals. It’s not the immigration court. So that is, kind of a big source of misinformation sometimes. Another kind of, source of misinformation that I sometimes see is that you can just file one. I found out about my deportation order so long ago, and it’s okay. I can file any time. One of the considerations in these motions is how long you waited to file this after you learned about your deportation order. So time is really of the essence here. If you have a deportation order that you know about, the longer you wait, the less likely it is that you’ll be able to get your case reopened. So for people that think this might be a fit for them, they need to reach out to an immigration attorney right now. Or maybe when they didn’t have U.S. citizen children at the time when the case got denied, now they’re over 21, they can apply. That could be a new factor, also maybe they got married to a U.S. citizen. So new life circumstances would, become a basis for a motion to reopen? And one of the first things we actually do at my law firm is that we always reach out to the ICE lawyers first to see if they will join in a motion to reopen, because if they will, it makes everything so much easier. I mean, it makes it easier dealing with filing the joint motion with the court or with the Board of Immigration Appeals. But of course, if they say come back and say no, then we kind of prepare to battle. Asma, I have a question for you. What’s your success rate in recent years with the current administration with motions to reopen? I have had a very high success rate in these. I will say that, in the last four years, out of all of the motions to reopen I filed, I have not had a single one denied. So, I had a question about the state of mind of people that have removal orders against them and people that are in this situation. You talked earlier about how stressful it is. I would think in certain cases it would be horrifying to think about being deported or breaking up the family. I mean, it sounds dramatic, but in reality it is stressful. Talk about people’s state of mind. People, when they call about these. I mean, it is just all consuming to them. It is all they can think about. I mean, we are talking about somebody with a big target on their back. It’s just the worst possible situation to be in immigration wise. It really is and so I think the stress levels are just through the roof. And so my job is to be honest, and forthcoming about their chances, but also to alleviate some of that stress, especially if the facts of this case are good. And I feel like it’s a strong case to seek reopening. There’s definitely people that need to talk to you about this. Would you share your contact information so that people watching would know how to get ahold of you? So, I can be reached at (214) 238-4130. You can also visit us on the web, www.immigrationlawdfw.com. And Lucine and I aren’t immigration attorneys. We own companies that work with immigration lawyers. So would you mind sharing your contact information? You can reach me at 833-NEED LTG or la@asklucine.com. Obviously, you can find me on Facebook and Instagram and just give me a call. I’ll be there. You can reach me at our website, marketcrest.com or the podcast website, immigrationnationpodcast.com. And of course the podcast is on all major channels. Thank you for joining us ladies I appreciate it. What a wonderful topic. And it’s so timely. Thank you for having me, Scott. This was fun. Thank you.