Deportation defense (now referred to as removal defense) refers to the mounting of a vigorous defense of a person’s rights whom the U.S. government, most often Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but sometime USCIS or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is seeking to deport or remove a person from the United States.  Typically this process begins when a person encounters an immigration official at the time he or she is entering the U.S. or after having suffered an arrest or conviction with a local law enforcement agency.

If one of these immigration officials believes a person is either inadmissible or deportable under the US immigration laws the person is issued a Notice to Appear advising him or her of the grounds the government believes exist that would make that person subject to being removed to their home country or country of last residence.  Unless subject to expedited removal (immediate expulsion), the person who is subject to the removal process is scheduled to go before an administrative law judge (immigration judge) who will hear the charges in the Notice to Appear, determine if the person is removable as charged and hear any requests for relief from removal the person may have that would permit him or her to remain in the U.S. 

The deportaion/removal process is highly technical and while a “civil proceeding” involves important legal issues that carry with them lifetime and permanent consequences.  Both lawful permanent residents and those in the county without any status face difficult hurdles in asserting their rights before an immigration judge.  Many may be held in immigration detention facilities without bail/bond while their cases are heard and can be sent hundreds or thousands of miles from home to far off detention facilities.  

With such grave consequences at stake it is important for those facing removal proceedings to seek competent and experiences legal counsel early in the process.