Today’s New York Times feature, “Perfectly Legal Immigrants, Until They Applied for Citizenship,” tells the tale of long time green card holders who attempted to be naturalized.

Instead of being granted citizenship, these applicants were not just denied naturalization. Their green cards were taken away and they now face deportation.

We have represented countless LEGAL ALIENS who ended up in Immigration Court after they tried to become US citizens.

Citizenship denials followed by the possibility of deportation are based on reasons including:
1. Petty crimes that occurred long ago
2. Failures to attend fingerprint appointments due to disability
3. Conclusions that immigrants LIED because their applications contained omissions of irrelevant information
4. Forgetting to change addresses (see previous post)

Legal aliens face a huge risk of removal from the US for minor violations of law that occurred decades ago.

We defended a green card holder who was ordered to appear at a deportation hearing thirty years after paying a small fine for smoking pot in a college dorm.

Immigration denied about 90,000 applications for naturalization in 2007 across the US. That figure equates to 12%.

Our firm is litigating for people who disclosed information on their green card applications without a problem BUT YEARS LATER THE SAME INFORMATION RESULTS IN CITIZENSHIP DENIALS AND MANDATORY DEPORTATION HEARINGS.