Immigration law imposes its harshest consequences on noncitizens who have a conviction, or even evidence of conduct relating to, a drug crime. This is an especially fast-changing area of crim/imm, and new issues and defenses are emerging each year. In this interactive webinar, we will present a comprehensive overview of the potential consequences and an explanation of established and potential defenses in this area. We will include a discussion of how the categorical approach can help, and of issues presented by the legalization of marijuana in some states.
Presenters
Kathy Brady - Senior Staff Attorney, ILRC
Kathy Brady is a Staff Attorney based in San Francisco. She has worked with the ILRC since 1987. Along with expertise in family immigration, immigrant children and youth, and removal defense, she is a national expert on the intersection of immigration and criminal law. She is a frequent speaker and consultant, and has co-authored several manuals including Defending Immigrants in the Ninth Circuit (ILRC), California Criminal Defense of Immigrants (CEB), the chapter on representing immigrants in California Criminal Law – Procedure and Practice (CEB), and Immigration Benchbook for Juvenile and Family Courts (ILRC). She helped found coalitions and projects to address these issues, including as a co-founder of the Defending Immigrants Partnership and the Immigrant Justice Network. Kathy served as a Commissioner to the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration from 2009-2012. In 2007 she received the Carol King award of advocacy from the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild.
Before working at the ILRC Kathy was in private practice in immigration law with Park & Associates in San Francisco.
Kathy attended Stanford University and the University of California Berkeley School of Law, and has taught immigration law as an adjunct professor. She is a member of the California Bar and is conversant in Spanish.
Rose Cahn - Criminal and Immigrant Justice Attorney, ILRC
Rose Cahn is a nationally recognized expert in the field of immigrant post-conviction relief and oversees the ILRC’s pro bono Immigrant Post-Conviction Relief Project. With over 15 years of experience working in the field of immigrant rights, and a special focus on the intersection of criminal and immigration law, Rose is a frequent speaker and trainer on the subject. Rose has co-authored several manuals including, California Post-Conviction Relief for Immigrants (Tooby) and Helping Immigrant Clients with Proposition 47 and Other Post-Conviction Legal Options: A Guide for Legal Service Providers (Californians for Safety and Justice). Rose spearheads federal, state, and local advocacy to help advance the rights of immigrants with criminal convictions and assist providers in understanding how to better serve this population. She is one of the principle drafters of California Penal Code § 1473.7, a landmark piece of legislation that created a legal mechanism to vacate unconstitutional convictions. She serves on the Advisory Committee of the National Clean Slate Clearinghouse and is on the Steering Committee of the American Immigrant Representation Project.
Before working at the ILRC, Rose was a Senior Soros Justice Fellow at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she founded the nation’s first Immigrant Post-Conviction Relief Project. Prior to that, she litigated post-conviction relief cases at the Law Office of Norton Tooby and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Warren J. Ferguson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Rose graduated cum laude from New York University School of Law, where she was the recipient of the Root Tilden Kern scholarship.
Michael K. Mehr – Law Offices of Michael K. Mehr
Michael K. Mehr is a nationally recognized expert in the field of immigration consequences of criminal convictions. He lectures widely to immigration attorneys, public defenders, and private criminal defense counsel. He is a co-author of several immigration and crimes publications, including ILRC’s Defending Immigrants in the Ninth Circuit and the chapter on defending immigrants in California Criminal Defense – Procedure and Practice (CEB). He served as the expert witness in immigration law in the landmark California Appeals Court case of People v. Bautista(2004)115 Cal.App.4th 229, which held that failure to defend against an aggravated felony can be ineffective assistance of counsel, and he was counsel in several key published decisions on crim/imm in the Ninth Circuit.