Federal Appeals Court Asked to Intervene in the Imminent Deportation of a Pennsylvania Resident, in a Case that Will Substantially Increase the Number of Deportations Nationwide

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Third Circuit Court of Appeals is reviewing an emergency motion to stay the imminent deportation of Robert Bautista, a married, longtime resident of Easton, Pennsylvania, who has been a Permanent Resident for twenty-five years and has three young American Citizen children.  

Raymond Lahoud, Bautista's attorney and a member of Baurkot & Baurkot, a Pennsylvania and New Jersey based Immigration Law and Deportation Defense Firm, filed a Petition for Review and a Motion to Stay Bautista's removal with the Third Circuit.  The federal appeal stems from an October 13, 2010 York, Pennsylvania Immigration Court decision that held, for the first time in American Immigration history, that Bautista's 2001 New York Third Degree Attempted Arson conviction is an aggravated felony, as defined in America's Immigration laws.  Bautista's criminal conviction resulted from his arrest ten years ago after a New York City police officer found him holding a gas canister near his own car.  

In a decision that shocked immigration advocates across the county, America's highest Immigration Court—the Board of Immigration Appeals—affirmed the lower court's decision, after conducting a rarely held oral argument.  These decisions foreclosed any potential relief from deportation for Bautista and thousands of other immigrants in Bautista's position.

"The Third Circuit must intervene and stay Mr. Bautista's deportation or a father, businessman and husband will be forced to leave the United States for a petty offense that he is alleged to have committed over a decade ago," noted Lahoud, "Both the York Immigration Court as well as the Board of Immigration Appeals completely misinterpreted federal law and the Supreme Court's interpretation of that law in deeming Mr. Bautista's crime an aggravated felony."

The lower immigration courts held that if the words in the New York criminal statute (or, for that matter, in any state statute) are merely found in immigration law's stringent aggravated felony provision, an immigrant, like, Bautista, can be deemed an aggravated felon, notwithstanding the fact that the federal statute may have a dozen more words than the state statute.  The Board essentially held that the extra words in the aggravated felony statute can simply be ignored, a decision that contradicts several Supreme Court and other federal court rulings.

"This is but one of many instances where immigration agencies act contrary to clearly written Supreme Court decisions.  These powerful immigration agencies constantly take it upon themselves to ignore Congressional intent and Supreme Court precedent.  In doing so, they have destroyed Bautista's life," said Lahoud, "and have created a slippery slope as to what is a deportable offense."

"Bautista's removal must be stopped because the Board of Immigration Appeals' decision could render nearly every state crime an aggravated felony, given that each federal aggravated felony statute has at least one word or phrase that is also in a state statute," said Lahoud, "The implications of the lower court holdings are far-reaching and will impact lawful and unlawful immigrants, will substantially increase the number of deportations each year and will have a devastating effect on the American deportation defense process."

Mr. Bautista has been in immigration custody, subject to the tough immigration mandatory detention statute, for nearly two years, causing his family to lose their lucrative Allentown, Pennsylvania auto repair business as well as their home.

Baurkot & Baurkot is a Leading Immigration Law & Deportation Defense Law Firm.  For more information on the Firm, please visit www.nationalimmigrationlawyers.com.

SOURCE Baurkot & Baurkot