Deportation defense in Florida

01 Quick answers

What starts a removal case?

A Notice to Appear, Form I-862, filed with an immigration court. Being detained or questioned is not the same thing — the case starts when the charging document is filed.

Which court will hear it?

One of three in Florida: Miami, Miami Krome or Orlando. It follows the DHS office that issued the charging document, not where you live. The Notice to Appear names it.

What if I miss a hearing?

The judge can order removal in absentia. There is a motion to reopen, but it has deadlines and standards that depend on why it was missed and whether notice was proper.

Does a pending green card application stop it?

No. USCIS and the immigration court are separate tracks, and the court does not pause because something is filed elsewhere.

Can I be removed at the first hearing?

The first hearing is a master calendar hearing. It is short, it is about pleading to the charges and identifying relief, and it is not the hearing where the case is decided.

How long does it take?

Often years. Immigration court backlogs are long, and that time is sometimes what makes relief possible — if the case is being managed toward something.

02 What it is

What a Notice to Appear actually does

A Notice to Appear is a charging document. It alleges facts — when and how you entered, what your status is — and it charges one or more grounds of removability under the immigration statute. It is filed with an immigration court, and that filing is what gives the court jurisdiction over the case.

Two things follow immediately. The first is that a hearing will be scheduled, and attendance is not optional: under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(5) a judge may order removal in absentia if a person who was properly notified does not appear. The second is that the allegations and charges can be contested. People often assume the document states settled facts. It states the government’s position, and the government has to prove removability.

The practical mistake is treating the first hearing date as the deadline. It is not. Applications for relief have their own deadlines, evidence takes months to assemble, and a country-conditions record or a psychological evaluation cannot be produced the week before a merits hearing.

The Notice to Appear states the government’s position, not settled fact. Removability has to be proven.

03 What the case looks like

Master calendar, then individual hearing

A removal case runs in two kinds of hearing and they are nothing alike. Knowing which one you are walking into changes what you need to have ready.

Master calendar hearings are short and administrative. The court takes pleadings to the allegations and charges, identifies what relief will be sought, and sets deadlines. Several cases are called the same morning. People leave these hearings thinking nothing happened; in fact the shape of the case was just fixed, including which relief is on the table.

The individual hearing — the merits hearing — is the trial. Testimony, cross-examination by the government, documentary evidence, and a decision. It is scheduled well in advance and the preparation between the two is the case.

Either side can appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, and from there to the federal court of appeals. Appeals have short deadlines measured from the date of the decision, which is one more reason a decision is not a good time to start looking for counsel.

04 What relief exists

The forms of relief, and what each one needs

Relief is not one thing. Which ones are available turns on how long you have been here, how you entered, who your relatives are, what happened in your home country and what is in your record.

Cancellation of removal has two versions. For a permanent resident it requires five years as a resident, seven years of continuous residence after admission, and no aggravated felony. For a non-resident it requires ten years of continuous physical presence, good moral character, and — the hard part — proof that removal would cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a US citizen or permanent resident spouse, parent or child. Hardship to yourself does not count, and the standard is deliberately high.

Asylum, withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture are separate forms of relief with different standards and different consequences. Asylum has a one-year filing deadline; withholding and CAT do not, which matters for people who are past it.

Adjustment of status inside proceedings, where a petition makes someone eligible for a green card. Waivers, which forgive a ground of inadmissibility. Voluntary departure, which is not relief in the usual sense but avoids a removal order and the bar that comes with it.

Several of these can be pursued together, in the alternative. That is normal practice and not a sign of a weak case.

05 Where it is heard

Which Florida immigration court your case goes to

There are three, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review publishes what each controls. Miami Immigration Court, 333 South Miami Avenue, Suite 700, takes charging documents from the Miami DHS district office and its sub-offices other than Orlando’s. Miami Krome, at the Krome North Service Processing Center on SW 12th Street, takes detained cases from Krome, Broward Transitional Center, Glades and the other facilities under its control. Orlando, 500 North Orange Avenue, Suite 1100, takes charging documents from the Orlando DHS sub-office.

There is no immigration court in Tampa. A Tampa-area case is very often in Orlando — but the assignment follows the DHS office that issued the charging document rather than the county of residence, so the only reliable answer is the one on your own Notice to Appear. The court’s automated case information line and the online portal will also confirm the next hearing date from an A-number.

06 The criminal overlap

Why an open criminal case changes this one

Grounds of removability and bars to relief are defined by reference to criminal convictions, and immigration law does not read a conviction the way a state court does. A withhold of adjudication can still be a conviction for immigration purposes. A sentence of exactly one year, suspended, can convert an offense into an aggravated felony and close off most relief at once.

This office handles criminal defense as well, and the reason that matters here is sequence rather than salesmanship: these consequences attach when the plea is entered. Before that, the charge and the sentence are negotiable with immigration consequences in mind. After it, the options are far narrower and much more expensive.