Attorney Scott McVarish has been chosen as faculty for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) national conference in San Francisco in June 2013. The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the country's largest and most important association of attorneys dedicated to the rights and dignity of immigrants.

This month’s featured case is a “marriage visa” case where the U.S. citizen wasn’t really sure that he wanted to get married. Unfortunately, our immigration laws are so difficult to navigate and punitive for the smallest infractions, that the couple really did not know what they should do. She had trouble the last time she came in due to an aggressive Customs Border Protection (CBP, formerly known as INS) agent who questioned all her entries. She was not sure whether she should tell him that she was visiting her boyfriend, her fiancée or just seeing the sights of California once again. Meanwhile, she was in fact looking at different job prospects but was terrified that if the immigration system found that, they would exclude her. Her fears were correct. If immigration believes you are here scouting jobs, you are not likely to make it past the border or – – if you at the airport – – to your luggage.

Our client was a nice, humble man who seemingly had no hope for his immigration situation. He desperately wanted to bring a family member of his from Guatemala but he did not himself have any legal standing to do so. So he lived his life quietly, stayed away from trouble and attended church frequently. One day, as he was picking up a friend, someone tried to carjack him. This terrifying moment lasted only a few seconds. The man reached into the car with a small knife and tried to pull our client out of the car. Our client resisted, got a small cut on his hand, and sped off.

Attorney Scott McVarish from The Immigration Law Office of Los Angeles, P.C. was honored last week for his outstanding work as a Los Angeles immigration attorney on immigrant family and deportation cases throughout Los Angeles.

Our office specializes in trying to keep families together. Unfortunately, our government separates over 100 families of immigrants every single day-- 365 days a year-- deporting at least one parent and depriving a child forever of that parents presence. When we win cases fighting back this attack against families, it is especially joyful for us. This month’s case we are profiling involves a dedicated father who came very close to being separated from his wife and two sons. One of those sons is in college and depends upon his father’s income, while the other is in middle school and depends upon his father’s love. This is a family trying to achieve the American dream but almost been forced into bankruptcy and separation from a government that has lost its way.

We are thrilled to announce what may be the first ever green card given by USCIS to a foreign national who crossed over at the Mexican border without any type of visa or other authorization to enter the United States. While cases like this are not that uncommon on the Canadian border due to different procedures, it is unheard of for individuals who have crossed over from Mexico. We have many clients in this situation and we tell them that we can win the case in immigration court after they have been put into deportation proceedings, but winning at a USCIS green card hearing just isn’t done. Until now. As the agent told us, this was the first time that USCIS in San Bernardino had ever issued a green card to an individual in this situation.

We are happy to welcome home a wonderful father and great husband. Our client had a flat tire on the 10 freeway just outside of Palm Springs last year. A California Highway Patrol officer came by to “help” him. A few questions later he was in the custody of ICE {see Morale of the Story below}. He accepted voluntary departure after having been picked up by ICE and before anyone contacted us (Never, ever accepted voluntary departure until you have talked to a reputable immigration attorney first!!). As a result he was separated from his U.S. Citizen spouse and their children. He was sent to his “home” country-- a place he had not seen in 15 years since he was barely a teenager.

The call came in to our office eight days before Christmas. The caller's life-partner had been arrested and detained by ICE. He had lived in the U.S. for 26 years, since 1985. He had applied for and been denied asylum in 1990 and was to be deported. He didn't leave. Over the years he had applied for TPS, work authorizations and done an unsuccessful motion to reopen. He had worked with multiple attorneys and notarios, none of who spotted the one issue that would save him. 21 years later, inexplicably, ICE came to his house and arrested him.

As with most of our cases, this client came to us on a referral. An immigration rights activist here in Los Angeles knows of our office’s dedication to and success for immigrants. Her best friend called her to ask for a referral for her cousin’s husband in Denver. He had just been picked up by ICE at their house in front of his wife and two small children. The wife was in despair -- they already had gone to one of Denver’s most prominent immigration attorneys who told the wife that she would never see her husband again except at the detention center or in El Salvador.

Our office is proud to announce a major victory at the Board of Immigration Appeals for our client. In one of our most complicated-- and fastest-- cases of 2011, our client went from imminent deportation (she was literally on the bus headed toward the airport) to a full restoration of her green card and rights as a legal permanent resident. In between, our office won a hard-fought battle against ICE to release this mother of two U.S. citizen children from detention; we beat the Office of Immigration Litigation in a successful federal district court habeas action; we beat the L.A. County district attorney’s office and overturned her criminal conviction in state district court; and, we then had the ultimate victory at the BIA after our first motion was incorrectly denied. All done in less than five months. Our client and her family is now out of their ten year nightmare. But we are now exploring litigation against her previous attorneys. Stay tuned.