{"id":5339,"date":"2021-03-31T08:03:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T13:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/borderlessmag.org\/?p=5339"},"modified":"2022-09-30T13:00:23","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T18:00:23","slug":"el-condado-de-cook-pretende-interrumpir-la-cadena-que-va-de-la-condena-a-la-deportacion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/borderlessmag.org\/es\/2021\/03\/31\/cook-county-aims-to-disrupt-the-conviction-to-deportation-pipeline\/","title":{"rendered":"El condado de Cook se propone interrumpir el proceso que conduce de la condena a la deportaci\u00f3n"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n

Alejandra Cano thought she was in the clear.<\/span><\/p>\n

It had been five years since she got sober after a decades long struggle with drug addiction. She racked up several misdemeanors when she was using, mostly for shoplifting. But that was another life. In this one, Cano, 46, was a working single mom who lived in a comfortable first-floor apartment on the West Side of Chicago with her two teenage sons. And after almost 20 years of not seeing her dad or her homeland, Cano decided to fly to Chile in August 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI still had my green card. I had no reason to worry,\u201d Cano said.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was wrong. Upon her return from Chile, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at O\u2019Hare International Airport pulled Cano aside. Her rap sheet had popped up when they ran her fingerprints at the customs checkpoint, even though her last conviction was five years earlier<\/span>. <\/span>After hours of waiting alongside other noncitizens, an agent took away Cano\u2019s green card. The government is now seeking to revoke her legal status and deport her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cano is one of thousands of people \u2014 including undocumented immigrants, visa holders, and lawful permanent residents \u2014 who go through deportation proceedings in Chicago each year, according to federal immigration court data collected by Syracuse University\u2019s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Many end up there via the criminal justice system. Not only do arrests draw the attention of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, certain criminal convictions can also trigger a deportation case. That includes offenses that, for a citizen, might mean only a court fee or short jail sentence. But noncitizens can end up being punished further with deportation \u2014 what\u2019s known as a \u201ccollateral consequence,\u201d akin to the loss of voting rights and other civil penalties that get tacked on to criminal convictions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"immigrants,

Alejandra Cano and her high school son Nico Ortiz outside their home Tuesday, March 16, in Evanston, Illinois. April Alonso for Borderless Magazine\/CatchLight Local<\/p><\/div>\n

The Cook County Public Defender\u2019s Office estimates that its staff represents hundreds of noncitizens in felony cases at any given time \u2014 all of which could result in such collateral consequences. A new immigration unit within the public defender\u2019s office aims to disrupt this conviction-to-deportation pipeline. Working with public defenders, prosecutors, and community groups, the unit will ensure that noncitizens are warned when a plea deal could cost them their status and their home.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Illinois has long <\/span>required defense attorneys to do so<\/span><\/a>, Cano said her Cook County public defenders never did \u2014 an oversight that\u2019s all too easy under the current system, according to several immigration and defense attorneys in Cook County who spoke to Injustice Watch and Borderless Magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three of the five misdemeanors that Cano pleaded guilty to between 2005 and 2013 were for retail theft, making her deportable <\/span>under federal immigration law<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Had she been warned of this, Cano said she would\u2019ve thought twice before boarding a plane. \u201cAt the very least, I would\u2019ve hired an immigration lawyer to help me figure out what was going on,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the scope of the new immigration unit is currently limited to advising public defenders, county officials say they ultimately want to provide free immigration attorneys to more immigrants facing deportation in Chicago. But fulfilling this promise will require changing state law, as well as overcoming the fiscal constraints that have hampered the public defender\u2019s office for decades.<\/span><\/p>\n

A deportable offense<\/b><\/h3>\n

Immigration issues loom large within the court system in Cook County, where one in five residents was born in another country. Most of those residents live in metro Chicago, which is home to 480,000 <\/span>green card holders<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and an estimated 460,000 undocumented immigrants, according to <\/span>a recent<\/span><\/a> study published by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how many noncitizens are facing criminal charges in Cook County; the circuit court doesn\u2019t track a defendant\u2019s immigration status. <\/span>An internal survey conducted last year found that Cook County public defenders collectively represented approximately 700 noncitizens from more than 80 different countries in open felony cases.<\/span><\/p>\n

“All those folks face immigration consequences stemming from that criminal case,” said incoming Cook County Public Defender Sharone Mitchell Jr., who takes the reins April 1.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to which crimes could get a noncitizen deported, immigration law is both exact and vague. Deportable convictions generally fall under two categories: aggravated felonies \u2014 <\/span>a laundry list of more than 30 types of offenses<\/span>, including drug trafficking, filing a false tax return, and failing to appear in court \u2014\u00a0and crimes \u201c<\/span>involving moral turpitude<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The latter category is purposely vague; even the Justice Department has said the term is \u201c<\/span>difficult to define with precision<\/span><\/a>.\u201d Murder and other violent acts are included, but so are nonviolent crimes, such as embezzlement, fraud, forgery, and theft. In the absence of a clear definition, immigration courts make determinations on a <\/span>case-by-case basis<\/span>, informed by relevant case law and state criminal statutes.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t