Arizona Immigration Laws

Criminal Law for Immigrants

The reason we do criminal law in conjunction with immigration law is that we found that a lot of our clients get into big trouble without even knowing what they were doing. If a foreigner was to be involved in a DUI or in an accident and someone is hurt or something, not only would they suffer the crime of they committed, immigration will show up at their door when they are done.

The same crime that a U.S. citizen will do and pay the price at the criminal justice level doesn’t end for a permanent resident or even someone that doesn’t have papers at all. Therefore, we consul t people on how they should live here. This is a good country, but it’s a country of law. There are so many things you can do and we don’t give excuses for people that don’t know the law. We consult people on what crimes can put them in removal proceedings. If they’re in removal proceeding, how we can consult the removal proceedings and get them back. But more importantly we ensure that they don’t go in there.

Cultural Differences

You can’t beat up your wife or your husband. These are things that could’ve been done in their home country with no consequences, but you can’t do that here. We don’t have two wives in United States. These are things that could happen in some other places, but this is not happening in United States. There are so many thing you can’t do here, so we consul people about those crimes and ensure that their stay in United States is good and is productive and to the extent that they obey the laws they’ll be welcome here.

By: Solomon Kanu

Hey, My name is Margaret Wong and I’m an immigration lawyer and I came to America in ’69. I was born and raised in Hong Kong. I went to an all girls, religious school since kindergarten. I came in ’69 with– right at the height of the Vietnam era with the kids in America against the Vietnam War, but never in my wildest dreams that I see what I’m doing now because in ’77 immigration work is not very hot. It’s very much like criminal work, very much like– it’s nothing compared to estate, tax, corporate where all lawyers want to work.

I turned out to be a great lawyer. That’s my passion. That’s my love.  But things really have changed. Years ago the same people don’t use the same lawyers like Middle East people they don’t like to go to Australian lawyer or Arabic lawyer because they their own people are not that people are not that powerful in America. But now things have changed. Because I speak fluent Chinese, we have a lot of Chinese clients coming to us because they just felt I’m one of them.

Also, because I speak the language of a foreign-born because I’m one. I came. I struggled. I was a chambermaid. I was a waitress. I was– you name it, I’ve done it. I cleaned toilets. I’ve done– I’m also the first one– normally the first one who comes into this office, turn on the light. I’m normally the last one to leave the office, turn off the light. It’s really a lot of fun.  Some highlights of this job. When we first started out– because in those day, there’s no 245-I. There’s no three or ten year bar. So people have no papers, they could still get the green card in America. But now they can’t. They have to go back to home country if they were not admitted or inspected or paroled.

To be a great lawyer you really have to know today’s world. You can’t always say, “yeah, but 30 years ago has happened.” Immigration law changes by the day, by the minute, by the hour. The Morton Memo who came out in November of year 2011, 2012. Now he retired and resigned. Homeland Security had mister– Miss Janet Napolitano also resigned. Now we’re working with a new head. These are things that we have to keep up, keep up, keep up.

By: Margaret Wong

Family Immigration

Family immigration is one of my favorite areas because it brings families together. It deals with parents filing for children, children filing for parents, spouses filing for each other, siblings filing for fellow siblings. In some situations, even step-parents filing for their children. It does bring families together.

Kanu & Associates

We’re very knowledgeable this area of immigration and we do this very well. If you’re thinking of coming to United States or you’re already in United States, you were even born in United States, but you want to bring your parent or your brother, your sister to United States, we will help you. That’s what we love to do. That’s what we have passion for. We’ve been successful in the past and we’ll help to bring the families together.

By: Solomon Kanu

We have done a lot of cases through the years, because every year we do 4,000 to 6,000 new matters that includes all our consults, our cases around the country, around the world, and all the work permits we got, the deportation, the filings, the asylum, the green cards, the extraordinary.

There are quite a few cases that came back to my mind. One of that is U.S. sitting president, President Obama’s auntie’s case. She’s a woman in the 60s. I met her right before the election of the president, and because of the press– I mean, at that time we don’t know if he’ll win. We are very careful of not letting the public know that I’m working on this case. She’s really an awesome lady. Of course, my partner talked about my firm, or also working with the uncle’s case. Uncle and auntie are so different even though genetically they belong in the same family. Uncle’s a lot more reserved, a lot more– He’s very gentle. Auntie is very more feisty and making sure that things are done right. So it’s two different personalities, and I said through the years, to work with clients you have to work with them on their– because immigration work is very different from corporate or tax.

Because the vision of course is keep them in America, get them a work permit, and get them a green card.   But you also have to work with that person. It’s a very retail, as I said in the industry. It’s not a wholesale practice. It’s a very retail orientated which means that with her, with the public uproar, did we get special treatment? Absolutely no. In fact, it drove me nuts. It’s easier to work on a low profile case than a high profile, because I know all my lawyer, federal friends are watching me. I know the government is watching. I know the right wing, the left wings, they are all watching. In order to be a good lawyer or a great lawyer, you really have to work in the trenches for years, and years as Blackwell said in The Outliers that you have to give them at least 10,000 hours of core competence of hard work. And I’ve done it for 38 years, 36 years.

So but with auntie’s case we won which is– Auntie’s case, it’s difficult because of the pressure, because of the disability, and also because of the law. She didn’t come to America until the 90s. In Immigration work, generally, the older you came to America– I mean, the longer ago you came to America, the better the case is, because laws have since changed. So and I’m the type of lawyer to work it, because I’m not young enough to not know history, but I’m not that old that I forgot.

By: Margaret Wong

Naturalization

Unless you were born in the United States, if you want to become a citizen, most ways would be through naturalization. So, you can naturalize after five years of permanent residency. There are a few exceptions where you are naturalized after three years: if you were married to a U.S. citizen, you got your permanent residency through a U.S. citizen, and you’ve been married to that U.S. citizen for three years. So, in a way we reward you for being consistent in your marriage. People that have served in the armed forces also get that grace to apply for citizenship in three years. But, the biggest hurdle people have in citizenship, is that some people don’t realize that when you have permanent residency in U.S., you’re actually on probation for five years. You can’t do anything. You can’t make any mistakes. You can’t commit crimes. So, when people commit crimes within those years, they run a risk of their permanent residency being taken away. If that doesn’t happen, when they come for citizenship, that is when all those things come out.

Preparing for Citizenship

We want to know who you are, how you’ve behaved, whether your moral character is good enough for us to make you a U.S. citizen. All these issues come up at the time of citizenship. There are questions to be answered. We prep people for that. When people pass my test, they always pass at the immigration level, because I’m very thorough. I want to make sure that you do well, while you’re in my office. I go with people to the interviews. Whether it is a permanent residency interview, or the citizenship interview, I always go with my clients, because I have a stake in what they are looking for. I want to make sure that they do well. I feel happy when they succeed. That way, the money they paid me has value for them, beyond just paying for a lawyer.

Receiving United States Citizenship

So, naturalization is one thing that gives people so much joy. When you look at the last words of our national anthem, it said that this is the land of the free, but is a home for the brave. If you’re going to live in this country, you’re going to have to become brave. That’s why I take people to citizenship interviews, to teach them how important it is to become naturalized citizens. Get to vote, get to be voted for, and do federal government work, live anywhere in the world without any fear of coming back to United States. It is such a glorious step to be a U.S. citizen.

By: Solomon Kanu

We have nationality traits. Like the Russians, the Ukrainians, they’re very different from the Philipinos because of the high and the different fraud level. The level of fraud is different. Nigerians is very different from Sudan, very different from South Africans, and it’s very different from Kenyans, Afghanistans, Pakistans. So it’s all different.  Like the fall of the Shah in the 80s and 70s. A lot of Iranians come to America. So with that, we did a lot of cases. But then the Marriage Fraud Act came in in 1984, and in ’86, IRCA came in. So all these are new changes, 1990 IMMACT 90, three strikes you’re out, by President Clinton that affected. So we have a lot of new things going in the past 35 years.  I’m also lucky because of the history I’ve been doing. Because once I started out in this practice, we used to have no secretary and one desk, and that’s me.

So I would run to Immigration, run back, because there’s no Xerox machine there. So I would run back to the office, make some Xerox, and run back. But now, immigration is growing. In those days, it’s a very small department of DOJ. In the olden, olden days, it’s with the Labor Department, then with DOJ. Now it’s with DHS, which is Homeland Security.  So some of the interesting cases we have done? We did Tony Pena, Jose Mesa. We did a lot of great tennis players. We did a lot of high-profile. But my pride and joy is really working with the everyday cases.

Each country– in the olden days, it’s quota. It’s priority-based. Now it’s still quota and priority-based– actually, in the olden, olden days, it’s hemisphere: eastern hemisphere, western hemisphere. But in ’94, the Civil Rights Act came in. ’95, the Quota Act came in, both by President Johnson. So people like us– I came in 1969. Actually, Taiwan kids came in ’66, ’65, ’67. And then Hong Kong kids came. And then the PRC came en masse in the past three or four years, because Hillary Clinton, before she resigned or retired from the State Department, really make more tourists and students come from overseas to enjoy our education system, to enjoy our touring, because our country– one of the increasing trade from our country should be from tourism and from education – foreign students – because foreign students pay three-times the school tuition than the in-state pay. Because foreign students have a F1 level, and then the general admission, and then the in-state tuition, which is lower than the general admission in all public schools.

So in the past few years, you see a lot more different countries coming to America on F1s. But about in the ’60s and ’70s, because Nixon and Kissinger did not open up the Far East until ’72 visit, ’78 visit, so en masse, all the Chinese came after ’78. But the Koreans came a lot earlier, because of the Korean War – ’51-’53, the Korean War – so Korea and the Philippines of course. In the Second World War, Philippines is a strong ally of America. That’s why in order to be a great immigration lawyer, you really need to know the world. Read the newspapers. Know the history.

By: Margaret Wong