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What Is It Like To Be In Removal Proceedings? icon
What Is It Like To Be In Removal Proceedings?

Transcript

It’s pretty shocking. I was on my way to work in the morning driving through the park and I saw the police car behind me pull me over and I knew I wasn’t speeding. So they came to the car and he asked my name when I told him my name he asked me to step out of the vehicle which I know it’s not standard procedure for a police officer so I resisted and I was like I told him no that’s like why and he actually opened the door and he pulled me out and he said he asked my name again.

 As he said your I have to come in with me and I was completely shocked and wondering what this is in reference to and he wouldn’t tell me at first. Two other cops stepped out of the vehicle and surrounded the car and then he told me he’s like well you’re eligible for deportation for a case you had in 2002 I said completely shocked and unaware I was like why now this is 13 years later. I didn’t understand the process of how immigration works so on the drive I asked them what’s happening and what are we doing here and he just basically said he was going to take me to a deportation center. He went over my case and he said there’s no hope for you. He said you’re gonna be deported once we got there. It was I mean as scary you don’t know what’s really going on it’s not like a typical jail. It’s not a typical jail process where you’re really understanding what outcome is they just kind of tell you here is where you’re going and this is it. They don’t really explain much of the details or what you can do they just kind of throw you in a room and here you go. 

The first shocking thing is you have no rights when you’re being deported . It’s crazy. Once you go in there you talk to other people and you understand that they’re going through the same thing. Everyone in that room is going through the same thing. A lot of them didn’t even know what’s going on themselves and so they’re asking me questions and I’m just like I just got here I don’t really understand what’s going on. So I just try to talk to many people and understand what’s going on and how we can work this. At that time I was able to call my wife and understand that she already had been working and getting an attorney because I told her you know we need this is the first thing we need to do. The first time I got to have a conference call with Mario it made me feel good to understand that someone on the outside was working on my case. He explained to me what was the process. He gave realistic expectations. I wasn’t expecting to be out that same day as he let me know that it wasn’t as easy once you’re in immigration’s hands. It’s really out of your hands you have no chance to make any different changes it’s all depends on the lawyers working outside to help you a lot. I know people that had called for their attorneys and they would not call back, they would not get any hearings, any conferences. I have people that have said that they had already wired money to these attorneys and they never got a call from them. I know that there were a lot of resources available but it wasn’t as easy to get to it. They tell you there’s a lot of things you could do but it was not easy and no one actually explained anything to you they’re like you can call this national center here and you can call this other place here but no one explained to you how to do it it was all left to you to do it or figure it out. Mario basically told me what the judge would be saying and what the government might say against me so he prepared me for what was going to be said so it wasn’t a complete shock to me. Then it was good to see that he was on the other side defending me and showing my point of view from there. That was, it was a big relief to know that someone was there for me. From being inside I’ve learned that you’re vulnerable and people are gonna take advantage of you. 

I knew guys that were in there that had wasted money and people never even showed up to their courts. I heard of people that were charging outrageous amounts of money to do the simplest things that Mario handled. I just think it’s a very hard place where they’re gonna really take advantage of you. As far as for Mario he was there for me, he went above and beyond what he had to do. My case it turned out that it wasn’t gonna be the easiest of cases to win so he had to go out of his way to go to look at a different point of view and do something completely different to be able to to win my case which he had to go to a state reopen a whole case and a whole different avenue that he had to take to win this case and he did it so I’m really thankful for that.