Stages of a Removal Case We Handle:

1. Notice to Appear and Case Review:
   
   • Analyzing the charges, factual allegations, and service of the NTA for legal sufficiency.
   • Identifying grounds for termination, including Pereira and Niz-Chavez challenges.
     
     
2. Master Calendar Hearings:
   
   • Pleading to the allegations and charges, preserving relief applications, and setting filing deadlines with the court.
   • Requesting continuances, changes of venue, or administrative closure where appropriate.
     
     
3. Individual Merits Hearings:
   
   • Trial-level preparation: witness preparation, direct and cross examination, country-conditions and expert evidence, and detailed exhibit assembly.
   • Legal briefing on eligibility and the discretionary factors the judge is weighing.
     
     
4. Bond Hearings and Detention:
   
   • Custody redetermination hearings for clients held at the Tacoma Northwest ICE Processing Center and other facilities.
   • Flight-risk and danger analysis, sponsor packets, and release planning.
     
     
5. Appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals:
   
   • Notice of appeal filing, full briefing, and — where granted — oral argument.
   • Motions to remand where the record needs to be expanded.
     
     
6. Motions to Reopen and Reconsider:
   
   • In absentia removal orders based on lack of notice or exceptional circumstances.
   • Changed country conditions, ineffective assistance of counsel, and sua sponte reopening requests.
     
     
7. Petitions for Review at the Ninth Circuit:
   
   • Filing and briefing petitions for review, motions to stay removal, and related federal court work.
     
     

Why Preparation Matters at Every Stage:

• The record built at the immigration court is the record the BIA and Ninth Circuit will review — there is rarely a chance to add to it later.
• Deadlines in removal proceedings are short and almost never forgiven.
• The strongest cases are the ones planned from master calendar forward, not improvised at the merits hearing.
  
  

If you have a hearing scheduled, bring the Notice to Appear and any ICE paperwork to your first meeting so we can map the timeline immediately.