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Not only can you be deported but also you might need to defend yourself in court

Friday, July 07, 2017

Not only can you be deported but also you might need to defend yourself in court

 

"Many are the cases of immigrant citizens, detained and subject to immigration proceedings - with or without a deportation order - who are in front of a judge with no one to defend them.

Such is the case of Florencio Banos, a 45-year-old Salvadoran immigrant whose story was originally published by The Daily Beast (link is external). Banos was detained for more than five months at the Varick Street Detention Center in Manhattan, and when he had the opportunity to present his case before the judge, he had no lawyer to help him.

"I'll have to wait and see a lawyer from the Legal Aid Society, because I do not have the money to pay a lawyer," Banos told Immigration Judge Patricia Buchanan.

While the conditions of detention in the cases of indigent criminals and in cases of immigration detention are exactly the same, the rights to the judicial process are not remotely similar."

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