Víctor X. Cerda former head of deportations, and former director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service now gives back to his Latino community at his law firm in Rye
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Rye
Attorney Víctor X. Cerda began his career working with the government in 1995 as an immigration prosecutor, then he was appointed director of Detention and Removal Operations in 2005, managing more than 600 attorneys responsible for representing the Department of Homeland Security. (DHS) in thousands of removal proceedings in immigration courts and advising ICE special agents in investigations. He later became chief of staff for ICE and the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 2008.
He has extensive experience that he applies to advising his clients, and as he himself says, now is his time to give back to the community everything that he has given him in his career and his trajectory.
“I want to help immigrant people who are key to the development of the local economy and the people who use them don’t care. The immigration and judicial systems are terrible and we are going to see how we can help them. If immigrants are well advised by lawyers who make decisions with good knowledge, they can win their cases. And I am there to help them,” said attorney Cerda, from the Frontera Law Firm, which offers top-level immigration and employment legal representation with a team of highly qualified attorneys.
The lawyer of Mexican origin, with a Juris Doctorate from the DePaul University School of Law in Chicago and a degree in Psychology from Brown University, has been meeting as an adviser, in Washington, with the then Commissioner of the Immigration Service, Doris Meisner.
“She did know immigration policy well and I started in big cases of national security, politics and I got the TPS for Nicaragua and El Salvador and I worked hard with the White House, since it was a good opportunity to learn about the national political system. , with the border patrol and inspectors and we also saw the issues of raids in the works. Until 9/11 arrived,” explained the lawyer, who saw that at that time the immigration reform project was about to take place, but that the attack on the World Trade Center occurred and everything fell apart.
“When Bush became president he knew the border issue well and during a meeting he promised to meet with President Fox, to work on immigration reform, including amnesty. One day we were meeting at the White House, also with my wife, Fox arrived and what they called the “Whole Enchilada” happened, and an immigration reform was agreed. It couldn’t be given because of the 9/11 attacks.”
It’s been 22 years and it won’t happen for the next two years and I think it depends on who is the president. The two parties (Democratic and Republican) do not decide, he explains about the future of immigration reform, “because each one has their political agenda and immigrants are in the middle.”
According to lawyer Cerda, one of the reasons why negotiations did not continue in the Obama administration was when strong punishments were established for employers who have hired undocumented immigrants. When Obama was a senator, his team was the one that promoted this clause, and also some of the unions did not want a visa program for non-professional workers, other unions did not want a visa for temporary workers and that was the fight and nothing was achieved.
About a case
One of her cases was to defend a Peruvian when they wanted to take away her citizenship, because under the Trump government they began an effort to review cases with crimes. Before, this was only done with cases of terrorism or the Nazis and every effort was made to revoke citizenship.
“My client was one of the first to be affected by the Trump policy. She worked as a receptionist for a person who committed crimes at the company, but I know she was not the conspirator and I managed to get a federal judge to give her probation for a year. They did not realize that she had a genetic liver disease and she could die, she had already lost a sister. I started fighting with the judge and I knew several of the prosecutors who were working on the case and I reached an agreement so that they accept the pardon, so that she stays here and continues her treatment, stays with her daughter, and We did it,” he explained.
Being in court is that we are already at the point of deportation and it can be achieved with the help of a citizen family member, partner or child, and many people have not done it due to lack of time, with the help of good lawyers, and they can achieve the residence.
“In crime cases, you can also get help if you have family here and demonstrate the trauma your family had in case you were deported, we can do it,” he said.
The lawyer has worked on asylum cases for high-profile people, including the president of a country that is looking for him and is even requested by the Department of State, or the Department of Homeland Security. “There I wait for the decision and I know what I have to do and the cases never take more than two years.”
His work has been exclusively with a certain quality of clients, but now all kinds of clients in general come to court. His experience in immigration law is high profile, prepared to figure things out because he has been in government and knows how the law is enforced.
“As a lawyer we fully defend our clients and we do everything we can and I present a case that works well for the government to approve,” Cerda explained.
Immigrants here can’t pay as much for lawyers, but people need to be guided to avoid being abused by some who don’t want to help or do their job well. I fight for my cases and see that some immigrants were waiting for their cases when nothing has actually been started for them, he said.
He advised immigrants that if they are paying their lawyer, always request a copy of all the documents that are delivered and that they file so that they have proof of everything that is being done. Lawyers must provide all the information the immigrant needs. There are immigrants who need documents and do not have them and the lawyers do not want to give them to them. They must also offer access to the documents to all their clients through their internet portal.
“I tell my clients to keep their addresses up to date, because if they send you a document and they don’t receive it, and they have an order, the judge can order you to be deported because it hasn’t arrived. But if you have updated the address, and they in Immigration do not send you the document, we will know that they are the ones who did not comply. And so you can reopen the case and move on,” she said.
Regarding asylum cases, he explained that he has a double chance of winning. The judges know the lawyers and they know their job well, it works. “Going to a court date alone is losing, I recommend having a good lawyer, experienced and focused,” he said.
Regarding new immigrants, he recommended informing Immigration about their current address, to avoid missing appointments and receiving deportation orders as a consequence.
Frontera Law Firm also offers labor legal services to defend the worker and recover unpaid money from contractors, a division headed by attorney Laura Rodríguez.
The lawyer has also been part of the television channel V-Me Media, in 2017, as senior vice president of the chain.
Posted on February 16, 2023
