Immigration Law Clinic Scores Major Victory
Though some immigration cases are not precedential, their outcomes mean the world to clients. On July 10, 2008, the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic, led by Professor Raha Jorjani and Steliana Schmidel '08, won a motion to terminate removal proceedings on behalf of its client.
The facts of the case are few but complicated nevertheless. The client, a 37-year-old male born in Mexico, has been a lawful permanent resident of the United States since 1990. In 1996, he was convicted of possession of a controlled substance, a nonviolent offense that would subject him to possible deportation.
In 2007, the client took a trip to Mexico. When authorities ran a check on the client's green card upon his re-entry into the U.S., his 1996 conviction resurfaced. The client subsequently was paroled into the United States, but placed in removal proceeding by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Under today's immigration laws, most drug offenses can subject non-citizens to deportation. There is one exception in the ninth circuit, however, which states that an expunged first time controlled substance offense— if for simple possession— is not a conviction for immigration purposes.
In February 2008, the client successfully expunged his conviction. From that point on, Schmidel focused on getting the removal proceedings terminated on the grounds that the client was no longer deportable. The judge granted the Motion to Terminate on July 10, restoring the client's status as a lawful permanent resident of the U.S.
According to Jorjani, immigrants facing deportation are under deep psychological stress, never knowing when they may be expelled from the country they call home. Jorjani, who supervised law student Schmidel, noted that the client's case is part of a larger trend of immigrant persecution for nonviolent, petty offenses, where the punishment too often is more severe than the crime warrants.
Before joining the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic, Professor Jorjani spent time working in Arizona detention facilities, as well as with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project. Steliana Schmidel, a May 2008 graduate of the School of Law, currently is studying for the State Bar of California. This is the second case she won during her last year at the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic.