Defending Immigrants Partnership ... Helping Defenders Effectively Represent Noncitizens

MAY 12, 2010 WEBINAR MATERIALS: The Padilla Advisory: Duty of Criminal Defense Counsel to Advise Clients of Immigration Consequences

1. PowerPoint Presentation
2. Padilla v. Kentucky Decision
3. National Practice Advisory: Duty of Defense Counsel Representing an Immigrant Defendant After Padilla v. Kentucky, Appendix B includes a list of national, regional, and state resources on immigration consequences of crimes
4. National Practice Advisory: Steps to Representing a Noncitizen Defendant Under Padilla v. Kentucky
5. Padilla Sample Intake Form
6. Immigration Consequences of Convictions Summary Checklist
7. Protocol for the Development of a Public Defender Immigrant Service Plan

On March 31, 2010 the U.S. Supreme Court issued its watershed decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, holding that the Sixth Amendment requires criminal defense counsel to affirmatively and competently advise their clients of the immigration/deportation consequences of criminal charges and criminal pleas. Failure to do so constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel. To assist criminal counsel meet this duty, the Defending Immigrants Partnership is pleased to present the following resources:

National Practice Advisory: Steps to Representing a Noncitizen Defendant Under Padilla v. Kentucky
This national practice advisory written by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center on behalf of the Defending Immigrants Partnership provides a step by step guide for criminal defenders to meet the scope of their duties to noncitizen defendant clients under Padilla. It also provides a summary of the resources available to assist defenders in meeting such duties.

National Practice Advisory: Duty of Defense Counsel Representing an Immigrant Defendant After Padilla v. Kentucky
This national practice advisory written by Immigrant Defense Project on behalf of the Defending Immigrants Partnership provides a summary and key points of the Padilla decision for criminal defense lawyers, a brief review of select defense lawyer professional standards cited by the court, an immigration consequences of crimes checklist, and summary of resources available to criminal defense lawyers nationally.

About the Defending Immigrants Partnership

The Defending Immigrants Partnership represents an unprecedented collaboration among the foremost immigration advocacy and defense organizations with expertise in the immigration consequences of crime and the one national legal organization devoted exclusively to ensuring high-quality legal representation for indigent clients in criminal and civil matters.

Since its inception in October 2002, the Partnership has coordinated on a national level the necessary collaboration between public defense counsel and immigration law experts to ensure that indigent noncitizen defendants are provided effective criminal defense counsel to avoid or minimize the immigration consequences of their criminal dispositions. To that end, the Partnership offers defender programs and individual defense counsel critical resources and training about the immigration consequences of crimes, actively encourages and supports development of in-house immigration specialists in defender programs, forges connections between local criminal defenders and immigration advocates, and provides defenders technical assistance in criminal cases.

Click here to apply to become a member of the DIP website.

2008 UPDATE: Click here to download the Defending Immigrants Partnership National Manual on Representing Noncitizens.

Website Highlights:

• A library of resources on the immigration consequences of crime. (Membership required)
• A news page with recent news and events related to immigration and crimes.
• Upcoming trainings on immigration and crimes.

Learn more about DIP partner organizations:

Immigrant Defense Project

Immigrant Legal Resource Center

National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild

National Legal Aid and Defender Association

Immigrant Defense
Project