Alejandra Cano thought there was no risk.
She had been sober for five years, after decades of battling drug addiction. He had had several police problems when consuming, mostly for shoplifting. But that was his previous life.
Now Cano, 46, was a single mother who worked and lived in a comfortable West Side apartment in Chicago with her two teenage children. He had not seen his father or his homeland for almost 20 years and decided to travel to Chile in August 2019.
“I had my green card,” the permanent resident green card, he noted. “I had no reason to worry.”
He was wrong. On her return from Chile, officers from the Customs and Border Protection Service at O’Hare Airport arrested her. They had seen his background on the computer and after waiting for hours, they took out his green card. The government wanted to revoke his residence permit and deport him.
Cano is one of thousands of people – including undocumented immigrants, visas and residents – who undergo deportation proceedings each year in Chicago, according to data from federal immigration courts gathered by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
The arrests draw the attention of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as certain convictions.
Non-citizens may end up being deported in what are known as “side effects,” something akin to the loss of the right to vote and other civil punishments applied when someone is convicted of a misdemeanor.
The Cook County Public Defender’s Office estimates that its staff represents hundreds of noncitizens, charged with a felony, all of whom may suffer “side effects.”
A new public defense unit aimed at immigrants is trying to prevent these deportations for some past violation. It works with public defenders, prosecutors, and community organizations, and tries to make sure immigrants are targeted for the consequences they can have if they negotiate a deal with prosecutors.
This has always been a requirement in Illinois, but Cano says his public defender never reported it, which happens very often, according to several Cook County immigration attorneys who spoke to Injustice Watch and Borderless Magazine.
Three of the five offenses for which Cano pleaded guilty between 2005 and 2013 were for shoplifting. This can be punished with deportation.
Had he known, Cano said he would have thought twice before boarding the plane. “At least I would have hired an immigration lawyer to help me see what the situation was.”
deportable crimes
Immigration issues are prominently featured in Cook County courts, where one in five residents is born abroad. Many of these residents live in the Chicago metropolitan area, home to some 480,000 foreigners with a residence permit and about 460,000 undocumented, according to a recent study published by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
It is unclear how many non-U.S. citizens face criminal charges in Cook County as the courts fail to note the immigration status of the defendants. An internal study conducted last year by Cook’s public defenders noted that this unit defended some 700 foreigners from more than 80 countries last year.
“The immigration status of all of these people faces consequences from these crimes,” said county public defender Sharone Mitchell Jr.
As to what types of crimes can motivate deportation, immigration laws are precise and vague at the same time. Deportable crimes generally fall into two categories: serious crimes with aggravating circumstances – such as drug trafficking, making false tax returns or failing to appear in court – and crimes that involve some immorality.
The latter category is diffuse. The Justice Department itself said it is “difficult to define precisely” these crimes. The category covers murders and other acts of violence, as well as non-violent crimes such as embezzlement, fraud, forgery and theft. In the absence of a clear definition, courts may use their discretion depending on the case.
To complicate matters further, alternative sentences – such as parole, restitution, community service and rehabilitation treatments – which are frequently resorted to in reaching an agreement with prosecutors, can also lead to deportation.
Therefore, it is not easy to determine in advance what the “side effects” may be in these immigration cases.
While attorneys are required by law to inform a client if an out-of-court settlement carries the danger of deportation, numerous Chicago immigration attorneys told Injustice Watch and Borderless Magazine that, in practice, there are loopholes in the system. which deprive immigrants of the protection of “side effects.”
Kate Ramos, a lawyer for the National Immigrant Justice Center, a Chicago nonprofit, represents Cano in the fight to avoid deportation. The Chilean is not the only client who is exposed to being deported after reaching an agreement with the prosecution, according to Ramos: “Many of our clients tell us they were not the target of the consequences.”
The presence of an immigration unit in the public defense office can be important, according to Ramos. “Public defenders are not immigration lawyers,” he stated. “They look for the best for their clients from a criminal perspective, which is why it’s important to have an office that pays attention to both,” criminal consequences, and immigration.
Before the immigration case unit began operating, public defenders consulted with immigration lawyers on a case-by-case basis.
But Angela Kilpatrick, director of Bridgeview’s public advocacy court in Cook County, said it’s sometimes not easy to find a balance between a client’s immediate needs – such as an admission of guilt to regain liberty, e.g. – and the possible impact on their immigration status in the future.
Having an immigration lawyer in the village’s own ombudsman helps a lot, according to Kilpatrick.
At the head of the unit is lawyer Hena Mansori, who has extensive experience in the field of immigration and who worked for more than a decade at the National Center for Immigrant Justice. Since January he has been preparing dozens of public defenders via Zoom and creating a new system to identify cases where public defenders defend foreigners. The system will be protected by attorney-client privileges, so immigrants will not have to worry about the possibility of the ICE stepping on their heels.
The immigration unit currently has only one member, but plans to hire two immigration attorneys and another person to attend Mansori this year, according to Mansori.
One lawyer for each immigrant
While the Sixth Amendment to the constitution guarantees the right to a lawyer, immigration courts do not recognize this right. Last year, 66% of immigrants subjected to deportation proceedings did not have one, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University. In Chicago immigration courts, that figure is close to 70 percent.
When immigrants at risk of deportation have a lawyer, they are ten times more likely to win their cases, according to an analysis by the Institute of True Justice.