Our client Mr. Cazares had lived here in the United States for most his life but unfortunately had a few criminal infractions which made it possible for him to be deported.  We argued to the judge the equities he had here in the U.S., and did our best to show evidence and testimony of his good character and value to the community. The judge sided with us and granted us the victory and awarded our client by cancelling his deportation. This is a great win that allows our client to avoid being deported to a country which he has not known since he was a baby, which is today a very violent a dangerous place, and more importantly, reunifying him with his family and letting them stay together here in the U.S.

Great work by our attorneys and legal staff to help a man get Permanent Residency!

Cancellation is very tough to win, but it is a huge victory, and we couldn’t be more excited for this family.

The bill, which mostly addresses the budget issues for Texas schools, also includes a measure that requires DPS workers to verify U.S. citizen or legal resident status of applicants for Texas drivers licenses. Although DPS can ask this information now, this bill, which as soon as Governor Rick Perry signs will become law, will require it.

One of the partners here at Peek & Toland had this to say about it.

 ”By again making a driver’s license more about citizenship than a persons capacity to be able to operate a vehicle, you are making criminals out of people who are otherwise in every way capable of driving.  In a time where everyone needs to drive to get around, especially in Texas (where none of the major cities have effective mass transit due to our urban sprawl), this law tells them they can’t drive for the sole reason that they weren’t born here, and don’t have a current legal immigration status.  This in turn will cause auto insurance companies to not want to cover people without driver’s licenses which effectively means they are putting more uninsured people on the road.  Is the desire to identify people illegally here is more pressing and important than those people having car insurance? These immigrants are already here in the millions, They can’t stop driving, working, or going to the store just because you pass this law, so it effectively ignores the effect of creating millions of uninsured drivers.  These people would gladly pay, and pay extra at that, in order to be able to have a license and insurance.  Further more it naively assumes that DPS workers will not profile.  The article states the employees will have to ask for citizenship and MAY ask for proof.  How many white people do you think will be asked for proof?  Sure all will be asked if they are citizens, but what color do you think the ones who will be asked to prove it?

Bad legislation, by myopic legislators focused on the symptoms and not the problem and pass poorly thought out laws without consideration on the social implications, bigotry, stereotypes and how those who are not caucasion get affected by such short sighted lawmaking.  Texas is a worse place to drive now because of this law, that is a fact. And Texas is not any safer as no amount of administrative barriers will stop illegal immigration.

However, administratively, DPS had already been applying this as a practice, so it already had been enacted in that sense, even though it was not law. And one bad by-product of their police was they were denying licenses to people who were legally here on visas.  Now at least people legally here on short term visas can get a driver’s license. Still a bad law, though.

It will be interesting to see what kinds of effects we will see in the community once this bill becomes law. Whatever happens, these quick-fix laws are not really helping to solve the serious immigration issues in our country.

Under Title 8 Section 287.7(d) it says that when ICE (Immigration) asks to issue a detainer for an Alien not otherwise detained by a criminal justice agency, such agency shall maintain custody of the alien for a period not to exceed 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays in order to permit assumption of custody by the Department. After 48 hours, we can argue for the release of the client as the jails would be violating Federal law by detaining them further. If you have any questions about the 48 hour rule, contact our firm here for more information!

Having an excellent and 24-hour around-the-clock firm like Peek & Toland can be the difference between having your attorney on the phone with the Sherriff’s office at 10 p.m. demanding your freedom, and having you being picked up by Immigration Enforcement in the morning and deported.  Tonight our client will be sleeping in his bed.  Where will your loved one be sleeping?

Peek & Toland has been fighting for clients and keeping families together for over 11 years. Let us fight for you! Visit us on our website for more information.

Life would been extremely difficult for Hispanic Texans if this bill had passed! The immigration issue is already complex enough without more legislation added onto it.

Here are some articles about it:

Houston Chronicle article

Texas Tribune article

Dallas Morning News article

I just visited a client in Bell County, Texas (Belton) who had been arrested for a DWI. When the officer pulled him over all he asked was for his license and asked him if he had been drinking. My client handed him his valid Mexican Driver’s License (which is valid in Texas if you are here visiting for less than 90 days) and admitted to having 2 beers. The officer asked him to get out of his car, and then promptly arrested him. No follow up questions, no HGN test, no field sobriety test, no portable breath test, just straight to handcuffs and the back of the patrol car. The client asked the officer why he was being arrested, and was ignored and never told. Now by any objective measurement or grading, that is a horrible DWI investigation, and more than likely an illegal arrest. I am really interested to see the Probable Cause affidavit to see what reasons the officer had for making the arrest. Unfortunately, having been a Criminal defense attorney for over 10 years in Central Texas and having defended clients in Bell County before, I think the fact my client had a Mexican Driver’s license and was Hispanic (even though he speaks fluent English and grew up here) played a large part in how he was treated.

What do you think ?

Anyone have a similar bad experience in Belton or Bell County with law enforcement there ?

Anyone ever been arrested or bothered by police or Sheriff’s in Bell County or Belton and you think the reason they treated you the way they did was on account of your race or ethnicity ?

The criminal defense attorneys at Peek & Toland want to know!

-JP

When Mr. Estrada called us to ask for help, we didn’t realize that a simple exchange of information would be able to help him so much.

Mr. Estrada had been told by a Sheriff’s Deputy that they could not do anything about his situation, but that was not the case. And, although our firm would not benefit financially from helping this family, our caring associates took the time to advise them.

The Estrada family saved thousands of dollars, the associates at Peek & Toland prevented a family member from getting deported from the U.S. The value of which could be measured in tens of thousands not to mention the emotional and psychological toll that would place on a family.

Now, we aren’t trying to brag, but we are trying to shamelessly promote the value of information. It is so important that the community be aware of the options they have when faced with difficult situations.

At Peek & Toland, we are celebrating this victory for the Hispanic community that we serve.

Two of our clients who were on the way to buy a car in Dallas were illegally stopped and illegally detained in Hill County earlier this year.   They had brought along the cash to buy the car, and when they were stopped due to profiling, they were arrested without cause. The case was never even filed with the clerk, nor did the D.A. ever have copies of the arrest or a file in their office, yet these men remained detained for over a month.  P&T filed a Motion for Examining Trial and 2 days later the case was dropped and client released and returned their cash and truck! Sometimes the system makes mistakes, but its great to see that they can be fixed!

P&T

Client had been arrested on a misdemeanor Fail to ID.  The bond was set really low at $750 so we advised the wife in order to have him moved to Immigration Custody faster where we then could fight for a bond for him, to go ahead and pay his $750 criminal bond.  We kept an eye on it (as we always do in these cases, because you never know when the jail or Immigration will make a mistake) and when 48 hours had passed (not including Saturday or Sunday or Holidays) and Immigration had not picked him up from jail, we knew we had an argument under the Federal Regulations that he must be released.

Under Title 8 Section 287.7(d) it says that when ICE (Immigration) asks to issue a detainer for an Alien no otherwise detained by a criminal justice agency, such agency shall maintain custody of the alien for a period not to exceed 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays in order to permit assumption of custody by the Department.

So at the moment the 48 hours passed, we called the Jail and demanded his release.  They realized their error but told us he was on the list to be transferred tomorrow morning.  We told them that was a violation of Federal law and they needed to follow the law.  They ended up agreeing with us and our client was released, thus avoiding Deportation proceedings.  Great job by the Peek & Toland staff to vigilantly watch the jail and hold the government to following the law !