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Posts by David Joseph Rozas
ICE Put a Hold on Someone at East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. Here Is What That Actually Means
The call to our office usually starts the same way. A family scraped together bond money for a relative sitting in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, and the jail told them there is a hold. An immigration hold. Nobody at the window explained what that means, and the family is now trying to make a…
Read MoreThe Plea That Deports You: Why a Louisiana Criminal Case Is an Immigration Case Too
A man walks into our office holding a piece of paper from eight years ago. It is a minute entry from a Louisiana district court. He pled guilty to a theft charge, got probation, completed it, and had the case set aside. His lawyer told him it would not be on his record. He believed…
Read MoreThe Detective Just Called and Asked You to Come In. Call a Lawyer First
Why the window before an arrest is the most valuable time in a Baton Rouge criminal case, and the one almost nobody uses. Almost every criminal defense lawyer in Baton Rouge has had the same conversation. A new client sits down, slides a police report across the table, and says something like: I already talked…
Read MoreYour Divorce Is Amicable. That Is Exactly Why the Paperwork Has to Be Right
What an agreed divorce in East Baton Rouge Parish still has to get correct, and what it costs when it does not. Most people who call our office about a divorce are not angry. They have already had the hard conversation. Nobody cheated. Nobody is fighting over the children. They have divided the furniture, agreed…
Read MoreWhen Your Asylum Case Goes to Immigration Court: What a Referral Actually Means
You filed Form I-589 almost two years ago. You sat in the waiting room at the asylum office. You answered every question an officer asked about the night the men came to your house, and about why you could not go to the police. Then an envelope came. It did not say approved. It said…
Read MoreWhat “Medical Hardship” Actually Means on Form EOIR-42B
A father in Baton Rouge sits across from me with a folder. Inside is a photograph of his nine year old daughter, a United States citizen, and a prescription bottle. She has Type 1 diabetes. He has worked in Louisiana since 2011 and has no criminal record. He has a removal hearing, and he wants…
Read MoreVoluntary Departure Sounds Like Mercy. Asked For Alone, It Is Usually a Surrender
A man is arrested after a traffic stop in East Baton Rouge Parish. Within a week he is in a detention center in central Louisiana, appearing by video before an immigration judge, with no attorney. The judge asks whether he wants to fight his case or take voluntary departure. Someone in his housing unit already…
Read MoreThere Is a Warrant Out for You in East Baton Rouge Parish. Now What?
Most people find out the same way. A traffic stop on Airline that should have taken ten minutes turns into handcuffs. A background check for a new job comes back with something on it. A family member calls and says a deputy came by the house asking questions. By then the choice has already been…
Read MoreArrested Near LSU: What Baton Rouge Students and Parents Need to Know
The fall semester is barely underway and football season is here. Every year at this time our phones start ringing with the same call. A parent in Texas or Metairie or Shreveport is on the line at two in the morning because their son or daughter just got arrested outside a bar in Tigerland, at…
Read MoreImmigration Habeas Corpus in the Fifth Circuit: What Families in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas Need to Know
If someone you love has been picked up by ICE and taken to Jena, Winnfield, Basile, Natchez or one of the detention centers in South Texas, you have probably already heard the words “no bond.” You may have been told there is nothing to be done until the immigration judge rules, and that the wait…
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