Why Seek Post Conviction Relief?

For most people a guilty plea in criminal court entered many years ago is nothing more than a bad memory of a difficult time in one's past. The truth is that criminal convictions for a defedant that is not a United States citizen can have devastating effects many years later. Criminal convictions can cause immigrants to be placed in removal proceedings, be detained for weeks, months, or years in immigration facilities often located hundreds of miles from home, and be deported permanently separated from family and an established life in the United States. In recognizing the severity of these immigration penalties, and the fact that they flow directly from criminal convictions the California Legislature has enacted legal remedies that can assist immigrant defendants that entered an uninformed plea in the past that are now causing adverse immigration consequences.  

Guilty Pleas Cause Grief in Immigration Court

Many immigrants do not become aware of immigration consequences until immigration authorities initiate removal proceedings, often years after the immigrant defendant successfully completed probation or parole. As a result, many families have been torn apart by deportations based on convictions entered unknowingly by immigrant defendants. 

Vacate a Criminal Conviction To Avoid Deportation

The attorneys at Uribe & Uribe APLC understand the high stakes and severe consequences that are involved when a client is accused of a crime. Defending non-citizens accused of crime requires an understanding of how criminal law will affect an immigrant's case in immigration court. Drug charges, domestic violence, DUIs, solicitation, assault, aggravated felonies and fire arm charges are just a few of the many crimes that will cause adverse immigration consequences for an immigrant defendant in criminal court. The attorneys at Uribe & Uribe APLC understand the high stakes for a client who has immigration concerns. Defending non-citizen clients with visas and permanent residency cards takes a special skill since an immigrant client faces another set of consequences in immigration court. 

Deportation Ruins Lives 

Too often defense attorneys either through fear or intimidation settle for plea deals that do not serve their client's best interest. What judges and prosecutors many see as a collateral interest, the fear of being deported as a result of a guilty or no contest plea is the most important interest that a client has. Deportation can signify a complete change a person's life and destroy everything that the client has worked to achieve. At the law firm of Uribe & Uribe APLC  we know it is in our client's best interest to not settle for a bad deal that can lead to deportation, exclusion from admission or denial of naturalization later in immigration court. An aggressive defense against an aggressive prosecution levels the playing field in a court of criminal law. The immigration and criminal defense attorneys at Uribe & Uribe APLC enable a noncitizen client to have a chance at maintaining his or her life in the United States. In fact the United States Supreme Court agrees immigration concerns are an important consideration for a non citizen client. In Padilla v. Kentucky (2010), the U.S. Supreme Court made deportation an exception to the collateral consequences rule, and held for the first time that counsel's failure to advise a criminal defendant of the deportation consequences of a guilty plea constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel. The stakes are raised when a client is a non- citizen and is faced with the decision of accepting a "deal" in criminal court versus risking deportation as a result of the "deal" in Immigration Court. The reality is that a criminal conviction can be the cause of deportation. Post conviction relief in criminal court can mean setting aside a criminal conviction, changing a conviction to another charge, or reducing the charge and most importantly can mean avoiding deportation and removal from the United States. 

Defending The Rights of Immigrants 

Immigrants accused of a crime face not only penal consequences once they are accused of a crime, but also face immigration consequences as a result of the criminal accusations. Whether it is fighting an active criminal case to avoid immigration consequences or vacating a conviction from a client's record the  Uribe & Uribe APLC takes pride in representing the hard to defend. In 2010, Padilla v. Kentucky established that criminal defense lawyers must advise clients about deportation consequences of a conviction, as part of their duties under the Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel.  Mr. Padilla won in the Supreme Court because his trial lawyer erroneously informed him that he would not be deported after pleading guilty to a drug trafficking charge because he had been in the United States for so long and had served in the military in Vietnam. It was found that Mr. Padilla's attorney in this case suffered from his attorney's ineffective assistance of counsel since Mr. Padilla showed both attorney incompetence and prejudice. This case established a rule requiring attorneys to inform, advise and defend against adverse immigration consequences. In Lee v. United States (2017) the Court considered the standard for proving prejudice, here it was found that Mr. Lee's trial lawyer failed to meet his duty under Padilla by assuring him that he would not be deported if he pled guilty to selling ecstasy. The Court determined that the proper standard for proving prejudice when a defendant pleads guilty in a case involving strong evidence of guilt. Like many immigrants in the United States Mr. Lee had strong ties to the United States. Lee's parents, who both later naturalized as United States citizens, brought him here as a teenager. Lee graduated high school here and had lived in the United States for more than 30 years, never returning to his home country. Inspite of being in the United States for more than thirty years he never became a United States citizen instead he was a lawful permanent resident and thus subject to mandatory deportation for a drug sale conviciton. It was held that Mr. Lee would have taken a chance a trial even if it was a hail mary since he had so many connections to the United States. It was found that the test for prejudice includes a view of the entire context of the defendant's life. 

Vacting Criminal Convictions For Immigration Purposes and Defending Against Removal from the United States 

Uribe & Uribe APLC a Los Angeles Immigration and Criminal Defense Law Firm focusing on representing immigrant clients in both criminal and immigraiton court. Erasing a criminal conviction from a defendant's record can often be the only option to avoid harsh immigration consequences such as deportation, exclusion from admission to the United States, and denial of naturalization. The post-conviction process can be difficult but with the experienced team at Uribe & Uribe APLC  it can be a possibility that helps keeps a family together. To find out if you are eligible for post-conviction relief contact Uribe & Uribe  APLC.



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Uribe & Uribe APLC offers aggressive legal representation for client's accused of crimes and facing removal from the United States. Our attorneys have experience defending clients in DUIs, Felonies, and Misdemeanors, Post-Conviction Relief for Immigration, Removing Convictions, Reducing Convictions, and defending clients in complex criminal matters, immigration removal proceedings, asylum petitions and more.  If you need answers to difficult questions, please do not hesitate to contact Uribe & Uribe APLC to address your concerns and provide you with the aggressive legal representation that you deserve.

Erasing a Criminal Conviction from Your Record To Avoid Immgration Consequences

If the court does not advise a defendant facing immigrant consequences such as deportation, in immigration court, then Penal Code Section 1016.5 provides the immigrant defendant facing adverse immigration consequences as a result of the plea to withdraw the plea.  Once the plea is withdrawn, the court "vacates" the conviction meaning the conviction is erased from the immigrant defendant's record.   Once a plea is vacated the Immigration Court cannot use the conviction against the immigrant defendant.

Immigrant Defendants Have a Right To Effective Assistance of Counsel Through Every Stage of Criminal Court

All defendants in criminal court regardless of immigration status are entitled to effective assistance of counsel. If an attorney's conduct falls below an objective standard of reasonablness than a defendant can make a claim against the attorney and may be able to withdraw the plea. An attorney's conduct must be objective and reasonable throughout the criminal court process. While most claims may seek to invalidate a conviction based on a plea of guilty or no contest, a defendant may vacate a conviction, even after trial, on the ground of ineffective assistance during plea bargaining. A claim of immigration related ineffectiveness may be presented where, through counsel's error during plea bargaining, in failing to advise the defendant of the adverse immigration consequences of a conviction at trial, the defendant fails to defend against these advise immigration consequences by failing to seek an alternative disposition to avoid them.