What You Should Do If Arrested
Hello, everyone. Yifei He here, Immigration and Criminal defense attorney. Getting arrested as an immigrant carry serious collateral consequences. You can be deported. You can be locked up. You can never see your family, or return to United States ever again. So what do you do when you get arrested? There're four steps you should take.
One, You should remain silent. Exercise your rights to speak to an attorney. The police or the immigration officer won't pressure you to respond to them. If you tell them of your Miranda rights, that you want to speak to your attorney, before you speak to them. But you should definitely not lie about your immigration status. For example, they ask you if you're an immigrant, don't tell them you're a citizen, because that would just cause you to fall into more trouble. Number two, get an experienced Immigration and Criminal Defense Lawyer. A lot of criminal defense lawyers, they don't know anything about immigration. And what they tell you could get you deported. They could tell you to take a fall, but then it can lead to deportation. And you don't want that because you want to stay here, and fight your charges. Number three, avoid serious convictions. For example, in immigration law, there're two terms. Crimes of Moral Turpitude and Aggravated Felony. Avoid those convictions that carry those brands at all costs. Because those would lead to deportation. Getting an aggravated felony conviction, would allow you never to return to the United States. Would you prevent you from getting your citizenship. Will strip you of your green card. So consult with an immigration attorney who knows these subjects.
And last, number four. If you are forced to take a Plea where you have to admit to one of these crimes, you have to lessen the impact of these crimes on your immigration status. You can do this by one, filing an appeal for erroneous advice given to you by your previous attorney. Or two, putting forward the Equities. For example, saying your family or Children here are U. S. Citizens and deportation would cause you to never see them again and cause them great hardship. So all these four steps you should take no matter which stage you are at the criminal justice system. So again, my name is Yifei He, I represent immigrants charged with crimes and I'm here to solve your most complex problems. Thank you.