Massachusetts Immigration Lawyer Blog

The Immigration Court in Boston, Massachusetts will be closed August 3 - 7, 2009 while the Immigration Judges attend a conference. While the Court is closed, no hearings will be conducted, except emergency bonds, which will be heard telephonically by Immigration Judges who are not Boston Immigration Judges. The Immigration Court is in the process of rescheduling all hearings scheduled for that week.

Although the Immigration Court will be closed, I'll be hard at work. If you need the help of an immigration lawyer, call me at (617) 722-0005 and come see me in my Boston immigration law office.

As a lawyer specializing in deportation defense who frequently appears in Boston Immigration Court, I find it fascinating that a close family member of the President appeared yesterday in our court before our own Immigration Judge Shapiro.  Zeituni Onyango, the Kenyan aunt of President Obama, is in deportation proceedings in Boston as everyone on the populated Earth knows by now.

Of course, asylum applications are confidential.  I certainly have no direct knowledge about this case.  But my experience as a deportation lawyer in Boston tells me that Ms. Onyango's immigration case has been widely reported in a way that is quite misleading.  The headline of the Boston Globe, for instance, claims that the Immigration Judge allowed Ms. Onyango to stay in the U.S. until February 2010.  What is misleading about this headline is that it falsely suggests that the Immigration Judge made a discretionary decision in favor of Ms. Onyango.  This is not at all what happened at the hearing yesterday.

Allow me to explain.  But first, some background:  In 2004, according to press reports, Ms. Onyango applied for asylum and the Immigration Court in Boston denied her application.  As a result, she received an order of removal.  The Immigration and Nationality Act allows applicants to reopen removal proceedings where the applicant can present evidence of changed circumstances that could not have been presented at the prior hearing. My guess is that the immigration lawyer defending Ms. Onyango filed a motion to reopen and argued that the conditions in Kenya have changed in a way that would affect the merits of her claim.  A second and obvious argument as to changed circumstances is that Ms. Onyango would likely be a target if she were returned to Kenya because she is now well known as the aunt of the President of the United States. 

After Ms. Onyango filed her motion to reopen her order of removal, the Immigration Court in Boston had to make a discretionary decision as to whether to grant or deny the motion to reopen.  It is clear that the Court granted her motion to reopen because if it hadn't, she wouldn't have had to appear in Immigration Court.

What actually happened in Boston Immigration Court yesterdays is that, most likely, Ms. Onyango appeared at what is called a master calendar hearing.  A master calendar hearing is usually a brief, administrative hearing in which the Immigration Judge sets up the issues in contention and, typically, schedules a merits hearing at which these issues can be addressed.

So when the Boston Globe announced that Immigration Judge Shapiro allowed Ms. Onyango to remain in the U.S. until February 2010, what really happened is that she just showed up for a routine master calendar hearing and the Immigration Judge scheduled her to return for a merits hearing.  That's it.  The Immigration Judge didn't grant her a reprieve or approve her application for asylum.  This result gives us little indication about her prospects for success in immigration court.  It does tell us that the docket of Boston's Immigration Court is so full that asylum applicants need to wait almost 12 months to have their cases heard--even if your nephew is the President!

Immigration lawyers in Boston, get ready:  the new US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Massachusetts immigration office will officially open its doors on June 1, 2009.  USCIS Lawrence immigration office plans to take on up to 30% of immigration cases for Massachusetts residents currently handled in Boston in the JFK Federal Building.

I'll be posting more information about the new USCIS Lawrence, Massachusetts immigration office as soon as it becomes available.

This evening I attended a meeting of the New England Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).  Robert Halpin, the Court's Administrator, announced that Boston's new Immigration Judge, Brenda O'Malley, will be taking the bench and hearing deportation cases starting May 18, 2009 after training in Immigration Court in Boston, MA and Hartford, CT.  Judge O'Malley has built a distinguished career having served previously with, among other places, the Office of Immigration Litigation, the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) Office of Chief Immigration Judge.  Apparently, she even worked at one point as a law clerk with Boston's Immigration Court!

Boston immigration lawyers with backlogged deportation cases are thrilled that we will soon have a new, 7th Immigration Judge to relieve the Immigration Court's busy docket.

Boston deportation or a removal hearing in Immigration Court often begins with a visit from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE). For the unfamiliar, these are the guys that deport people.  The immigration raid in New Bedford, Massachusetts was a fine example of the handiwork of ICE. If you are a green card holder but have a criminal conviction, you may have to contend with ICE. Overstayed your student (F1) or visitor visa (B1/B2)? ICE is the immigration agency you should fear.

In late 2007, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement moved its Office of Detention and Removal (DRO) from the 17th Floor of the JFK Federal Building in Boston, MA to a new facility in Burlington, Massachusetts.  Their new address is:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Office of Detention and Removal Operations (DRO)
10 New England Executive Park
Burlington, Massachusetts 01803
Phone number: 781-359-7500

If a friend or family member gets arrested in Massachusetts and taken into the custody of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE agents will most like transfer them to the immigration office in Burlington, MA for processing before being moved to an immigration detention center. Immigration bonds are now posted at the ICE Detention and Removal in Burlington, MA and not the JFK Federal Building in Boston.

Recently, with the New England Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyer Association (AILA), I toured the new ICE Detention and Removal facility in Burlington. Since my job as an immigration and deportation defense lawyer in Massachusetts is to defend immigrants who ICE has arrested, I was particularly interested to see the ICE office in Burlington first-hand.

My overall impression--ICE means business! For someone like me who fights to protect people from deportation, it was intimidating to realize that so many critical resources have been devoted to ICE's new deportation facility. Its Burlington Massachusetts deportation office is tricked-out with latest state-of-the-art electronics and a "War Room" with 100 cubicles--all filled with immigration officers hard at work figuring out how to arrest and deport people. In terms of detention, ICE's Burlington office has 4 cells, each holding about 25 immigration detainees.

Unless the Obama Administration shifts focus, I fully expect the surge in deportation cases through Massachusetts and New England to continue in 2009 and beyond.

On our tour, the ICE officers were generous hosts. I was impressed by their professionalism. We had an opportunity to meet with Bruce Chadbourne, the Director of ICE Field Office with supervisory responsibilties over Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Director Chadbourne met with us immigration lawyers and informally answered our questions at great length. I came away convinced that the ICE Burlington, MA office is committed to working cooperatively with the Massachusetts immigration attorneys to resolve any issues.

As a deportation attorney in Boston, I frequently appear in Immigration Court  Currently, I serve as a liaison to the Boston's Immigration Court, Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), on behalf of the New England Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).

Looking into my crystal ball, here are some positive changes that I personally predict are coming to Boston's Immigration Court in 2009:

Boston gets a new Immigration Judge:  It is anticipated that in 2009 Boston will have a new immigration judge.  I will post more news on our new IJ as soon as her appointment is made official.

Boston will get a new Immigration Court rooms:  The space on the 3rd floor of the JFK Federal building, formerly occupied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is being renovated as an additional Immigration Court room.  An extra court room and a seventh Immigration Judge should help ease the Immigration Court's crushing docket of immigration cases.

Immigration Court in Boston goes high-tech:  Boston deportation hearings in Immigration Court will be digitally recorded starting in 2009.  This shift to digital recordings should make it easier for me as deportation defense attorney to obtain and review Immigration Court hearings.

As immigration agencies such as USCIS and ICE consider moves out of Boston, it's nice to see expansion plans for EOIR within the existing office at the JFK Federal Building.  And these significant improvement should improve the functioning of the Immigration Court in Boston. 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has been ordered by a federal judge in Boston, Massachusetts to adjudicate the I-485, application for permanent residence of Mohamoud Abdi, a Somalian with asylum status.  Mr. Abdi's I-485 green card application was pending with USCIS for more than four years because of a delayed security clearance from the FBI.

To resolve this frustrating delay, Boston immigration attorney Joshua L. Goldstein filed a writ of mandamus law suit against USCIS, the Director of the FBI, the Attorney General of the United States, and various officials of USCIS asking the court to force the government to process the necessary background checks and adjudicate Mr. Abdi's application for permanent residency.

Judge Tauro of U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts allowed immigration attorney Goldstein's motion for summary judgment, finding that:

"[w]hile it would be difficult to identify with any precision a 'boundary between reasonable and unreasonable time for adjudication of permanent residency applications,' the four-year delay here is clearly not reasonable. Accordingly, Defendants are hereby ordered to adjudicate Plaintiff's application for adjustment of status and render a decision by February 17, 2009."

With a successful mandamus decision, Attorney Goldstein is now preparing to ask the Court to award attorney's fees and other costs under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA).

If you have experienced a delay with your citizenship, green card, or other immigration application, call the immigration law firm of Joshua L. Goldstein today at 617-722-0005 and find out whether a writ of mandamus law suit would be appropriate to resolve your immigration delay.

As a citizenship and deportation attorney based in Boston, I'm sad to report that 2009 could mark the beginning of the end of the JFK Federal Building as the "immigration building." According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, formerly the INS) Boston District Director Denis Riordan, USCIS tentatively plans to move the Boston Office from the JFK Building due to space constraints. Director Riordan told the New England Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) that new potential sites for the USCIS Boston Office include Quincy, Brockton, and South Boston. However, Director Riordan suggested that the move may not happen if USCIS can arrange more space at the JFK Federal Building.

In 2009, a new USCIS Field Office in Lawrence, Massachusetts will open its doors. USCIS broke ground on the facility in April 2008.

The address for the new USCIS Lawrence Field Office will be:

USCIS Lawrence Field Office
2 Mills Street 
Lawrence, MA

USCIS Lawrence Office will employ 40 people, including a USCIS Director, 2 immigration supervisors and 16 immigration adjudicators. The goal is for USCIS Boston to move about 30% of the immigration caseload to Lawrence, Massachusetts.  An immigration interview will be assigned to USCIS Lawrence Office based on the applicant's zip code. Director Riordan seemed particularly enthusiastic that USCIS was locating its new office in Lawrence, given this city's large immigrant community.

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