U.S. immigration
ICE detention and bond, in-absentia orders and motions to reopen, removal defense in U.S. immigration court, and mandamus when USCIS will not decide. Write or call in English or Spanish. Asking costs nothing.
What happened? Find out what to do.
The four situations this U.S. immigration office hears about most, each one with a real answer. Find yours, or skip the reading and write to the office.
ICE detained someone in my family. What do I do first?
Find them first. ICE has its own detainee locator. Then know this, before you pay anyone: the first decision about letting someone out is made by ICE, not by a judge. Send the office the person’s full name and country of birth, and you will be told where to look and who decides.What to do todayI missed my hearing in U.S. immigration court. Is it over?
Not always. When the judge orders you deported because you were not there, that is an order ‘in absentia’. It can sometimes be undone, by asking the court to open the case again. That request is a ‘motion to reopen’. The deadline depends on why you missed court, and it is not the same for everyone. Send the date you missed and why.What happens in courtI have a case open in U.S. immigration court.
Your first court date is usually a ‘master calendar hearing’. It is not the hearing that decides your case, and what happens there still matters. What help you can ask the judge for depends on facts most people do not know are important: an old arrest, when and how you entered, who filed for you and when. Send your next court date.What that hearing decidesUSCIS has had my case for years and has not decided.
Waiting is not the same as being stuck. Some kinds of case have a deadline written into the rules and some have none, and which one you are in decides whether anything can be done. A federal judge can be asked to order a decision. Nobody can ask for a particular decision. Send the form number, the first three letters of the receipt number, and the date you filed.When the clock is written down
Everything else (family petitions, TPS, I-220A, citizenship) is in Resources.
The first hour
If someone in your family was just detained, this is what is worth doing today. Do it in this order.
- Write down the person’s full name exactly as it appears on their documents, with their date of birth and country of birth.
- Search the ICE detainee locator with those three facts.
- If nothing comes back, look again later. People get moved, and the list takes time to catch up.
- Gather what shows the person lives here: a lease, pay stubs, school letters, medical records.
- Write down who took them, where, and at what time, if anyone saw it.
Then send this office the full name and the date of birth. Message on WhatsApp
ImportantContacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send confidential information until a representation agreement is in place.
Before you trust anyone with an immigration matter
Immigration-specific verification and anti-fraud guidance belongs here, beside the federal practice it concerns.
What this office will never do
Never promise or guarantee a result. No one can promise you an outcome in an immigration case.
Never ask you to send money through social media, a messaging app, or a person who comes to your home.
Never ask you to pay by Zelle, gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency. No one from this office will ever ask you for money that way, whatever name they use.
Never use the title "notario" or "notary" to describe legal services. In the United States a notary public is not a lawyer.
Never ask you to sign a blank form, and never keep your original documents.
Frequently asked questions
- Can a notary public or an immigration consultant do this work?
- Not merely because of that title. Federal regulation lists who may represent someone before DHS, including licensed attorneys and accredited representatives, with limited additional categories and conditions. A notary public or immigration consultant is not authorized simply by calling themselves one. In Florida, a notary public who is not a lawyer is also forbidden to advertise immigration services under a title that suggests legal training.
- 8 C.F.R. § 292.1(a)–(e)
- Can this office guarantee a result?
- No. A Florida lawyer may not make a statement a client could read as a prediction or guarantee of a specific result, and this office does not. What you receive instead is a straight assessment, including the difficult parts of the matter.
- Rule 4-7.13(b)(1)
- Will anyone from this office call me out of the blue?
- No. Nobody from this office will telephone you, come to your door, or send someone to your home to offer to take your case. If you did not contact the office first, the person calling is not acting for this office.
- Should I send my documents?
- Not yet. A first message needs the facts, not the file: dates, a form number, what a letter says, what you were told and by whom. Documents come later, after a signed agreement and through a private method. Never hand anyone your originals or sign a blank form.
- Is a first message confidential?
- No. Contacting the office does not create an attorney-client relationship, and nothing you send is confidential until a representation agreement is signed. Send only enough information to explain the situation.
- How do I verify an immigration lawyer?
- Search the lawyer’s public state-bar record yourself and compare the name, status, and office information. This site publishes the Florida Bar number when it is available so the record can be checked rather than taken on trust.
Immigration is federal law, so this work is done for people anywhere in the United States, from an office in Miami Lakes, Florida.
Pages about this work
- Family petitions and marriage-based residency
I-130 petitions, adjustment of status, and removing conditions on residence: what each form does, in what order, and where the waiting happens.
Guides
- Form I-220A: what it is, what it is not, and what changed
What an I-220A is, why the BIA holds it is not parole for the Cuban Adjustment Act, and what moved in 2025 and 2026 on detention and bond. Dated, with sources.
- Missed your immigration court hearing? Start here
What an in-absentia removal order is, how to confirm one was entered, and the one motion that can undo it, with the deadlines that apply.
- Does an I-220A count as parole under the Cuban Adjustment Act?
Under BIA precedent, release on an I-220A is conditional parole under INA section 236, not the parole the Cuban Adjustment Act requires. What the record shows.
- What happens if you miss your immigration court hearing?
Missing an immigration court hearing usually means an in-absentia removal order. What that means and how a motion to reopen works.
- What a DUI Does to Your Immigration Case, by Status
A DUI does different things depending on your status. What it takes to trigger the naturalization presumption, and why Florida law bars withhold for DUI.
What this office does not do
- Promise a result. No one can promise you the outcome of an immigration case.
- Quote a price before the papers are read.
- Take a matter governed by another state’s law. Immigration is federal and is handled anywhere in the United States; everything else this office does is Florida law.
Everything else (family petitions, TPS, I-220A, citizenship) is in Resources.
Talk to the office
Write or call in English or Spanish. The first conversation is about what your options are.
The attorney answers messages within 24 hours.
ImportantContacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send confidential information until a representation agreement is in place.