Events Calendar

Jordan Pollock '12, the Immigration Specialist at the Dallas County Public Defender’s Office, and Texas Appleseed present “Immigration Consequences Texas,” a guide on Padilla for defense attorneys representing clients in criminal cases. The guide explains defense counsel’s obligations under Padilla, the processes that are at play, and how defense counsel should approach advising clients in criminal cases given potential immigration consequences. This CLE will discuss the guide’s purpose and how to use it.

Cost: Free Coffee and cookies provided Registration required – deadline 5pm on Monday, June 10th.

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Presented by: Immigration Specialist at the Dallas Public Defender’s Office Texas Appleseed

Sponsors: William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law at The University of Texas School of Law Texas Bar Foundation Texas Indigent Defense Commission

MCLE: 1.0 hour

Presenter: Jordan Pollock is the Immigration Specialist for the Dallas County Public Defender’s Office in Dallas, Texas. Until recently, she was the only experienced immigration attorney to be embedded in an urban public defender’s office in Texas. In addition to supporting Dallas-area attorneys and their clients, Ms. Pollock spends a significant percentage of her time taking calls from lawyers across the state who want to advise their immigrant clients effectively. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, she worked for two years as an Equal Justice Works fellow with Public Counsel in Los Angeles assisting immigrants in detention. As a law student, she worked with American Gateways, South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, the Equal Justice Center in Austin, American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles, and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle.

Legal Background: After 1996, the immigration code was re-written to include many mandatory bars to immigration relief, creating new grounds of removability for those lawfully present in the United States. Consequently, a criminal case is now a determining factor in whether a non-citizen can remain in the country. In fact, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), 96% of all interior deportations occur as a result of contact with the criminal justice system. These sweeping changes to the immigration code affect all immigrants—even immigrants who are lawfully present and have extensive ties to the U.S.

Further, over 85% of all immigrants in removal proceedings do not have access to counsel. Thus, for many non-citizens, defense counsel is the only attorney they will ever have.

In Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that criminal defense attorneys must advise their immigrant clients about possible deportation risks stemming from their criminal case. This means that criminal defense attorneys across the U.S. now have to wade into complicated immigration laws. In the wake of Padilla and constantly changing federal immigration policies, there has been high demand for resources that illuminate this issue.