Many people are surprised to hear that if you have a deportation or removal case at the New York City Immigration Court located at 26 Federal Plaza, New York, New York, you might be able to request closing the deportation case.

The Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) and the Office of the Chief Counsel (which is the lawyer for the DHS) are more likely to close a deportation case pending in NYC than in any other jurisdiction . . . at least in my opinion and experience. In fact, the DHS is very generous and agrees to close an overwhelming number of cases.

I even had success in a case with a client that was in detention and had been convicted of various drug related charges. Despite the client being in custody and bond having been denied, the DHS agreed to close the deportation case, which allowed my client to walk out of detention join his family once again. Naturally, there were equities that were favorable to him which were able to show to the DHS.

Now, there may be times when you may not want to close a deportation case, such as when you want to present a particular case in front of the immigration judge. However, many clients also do not want to risk deportation and would rather close out their deportation case and try to legalize through other methods.

One must carefully evaluate each case and make a decision based on a careful balance of the positives and negatives with respect to being in front of the Immigration Court.