Justice Prevails With Supreme Court Decision on Immigration Counsel

America's Voice Blog

Posted 03/31/10 at 05:58pm

The Supreme Court, in a vote of 7-2, has ruled that a lawyer for an immigrant charged with a crime has an obligation, constitutionally, to tell the client that a guilty plea carries a risk that he will be deported.

In Padilla v. Kentucky, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Jose Padilla, a legal permanent resident and army veteran who has spent approximately 40 years of his life in the United States, could not take back a guilty plea – one that was made after counsel assured him that pleading guilty to a drug charge would not lead to his deportation.

Needless to say, his trial lawyer was wrong. Padilla found a new lawyer who filed for an appeal, all while his client was facing deportation. According to the AP article:

His lawyer for the appeal told the Supreme Court that the incorrect information given Padilla was a violation of the Sixth Amendment right to “effective assistance of counsel.”

The Supreme Court’s majority agreed.

As it turns out, unfortunately, a large number of immigrants are unaware of the outcomes – being torn away from family and friends -- they face once they make a guilty plea, no matter how small the offense. The US Supreme Court overturning the decision was incredibly important in the fight for immigrant rights in U.S.

As Seth Freed Wessler at RaceWire writes:

The Supreme Court decision extends the sixth amendment right to council to immigrants facing criminal charges. “The severity of deportation – the equivalent of banishment or exile,” writes Justice John Stevens in the court’s opinion, “only underscores how critical it is for counsel to inform her noncitizen client that he faces a risk of deportation.”

Michelle Fei, Co-Director of the Immigrant Defense Project, explains, “even though most immigrants’ primary concern is their ability to stay in the U.S., they often plead guilty, unaware that the result would be permanent exile from their families and communities.”

The Padilla decision will change this.