Determined Veteran Reverses DWI Deportation Part II: A Short Road Back

 Posted on February 02, 2021 in Uncategorized

The prior story of a veteran whom authorities deported after a second DWI but who finally won his legal readmission to the U.S. described the veteran's long and lonely road out of the U.S. Consider here the veteran's short road back.

The story resumes with the deported veteran still working in Ciudad Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from the El Paso home in which his wife and kids lived, a situation that had persisted on and off for around twenty years. Fortunately, though, the veteran had in 2016 met a public-interest lawyer who helped the veteran apply for naturalization under the 2004 Supreme Court decision that removed a simple DWI as an automatically deportable offense.

The story continues that the veteran's application languished for years until September 2020, when federal officials called the veteran to the U.S. border at El Paso. They had a surprise for him: they would swear him in there as a citizen and admit him permanently to the U.S. Incredibly, after about two decades of living apart from his own wife and children, the veteran was free to rejoin them in El Paso, where the veteran promptly found technician work once again.

The Significance of DWI Defense

One thing we learn again from the veteran's story is that a simple, first-time DWI should not qualify as a deportable offense. The problem, though, is that many DWIs are not of the simple sort. Texas law provides for enhanced DWI offenses, some of which would likely qualify under the Immigration & Nationality Act, 8 USC 1227, as deportable aggravated felonies, crimes of moral turpitude, or drug crimes.

The possibility of facing deportable enhanced DWI charges or suffering a deportable second or subsequent DWI conviction should cause any legal permanent resident or other alien resident charged with a DWI to seek expert counsel to raise an aggressive defense. Read more here about how Board Certified DWI Specialist Doug Murphy can successfully defend a DWI charge.

Retain Expert Representation

The lesson for immigrants charged with DWI is not to give up and plead to any DWI or DWI-related charge that could lay the groundwork now or later for deportation. Don't put yourself in the position of deportation risk. You don't know what might happen next. People don't plan on a DWI, which instead can arise at the least opportune moment.

Keep your legal house in the best possible order. Nationally recognized Texas DWI attorney Doug Murphy has helped innumerable clients, including immigrant clients, defend false, exaggerated, and otherwise-unjust DWI charges. If you are an immigrant facing DWI charges, you have too much at stake to retain anyone but the best. 2021 Houston DWI Lawyer of the Year Doug Murphy has the knowledge, skill, and experience to enforce your substantial legal rights.

Board Certified DWI Specialist Doug Murphy is available now for your representation. Doug Murphy is one of only two Texas lawyers holding both DWI Board Certification and Criminal Law Certification, meaning that he has the knowledge and skills to aggressively defend immigrant clients whose DWI charge, now or in the future, raises a deportation risk. Contact Murphy & McKinney Law Firm, P.C. online or at 713-229-8333 to discuss your case today. Trust Texas DWI attorney Doug Murphy with your DWI defense.