Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box, Dec. 11, 2023 "The escalating war between Israel and Hamas presents unique challenges for immigration lawyers who represent noncitizens from impacted areas. One such ethical conundrum arises when a lawyer comes to know that...
Cyrus Mehta, Kaitlyn Box, Apr. 30, 2023 "In recent times, immigration courts are dismissing the cases of noncitizens with great zeal. Even government attorneys are moving to dismiss these cases and Immigration Judges (IJ) are going along. This bodes well...
Cyrus Mehta and Kaitlyn Box, May 9, 2022 "On April 3, 2022 the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) Kerry E. Doyle issued a memorandum (“the Doyle memo”) which empowers ICE attorneys to exercise prosecutorial...
Cyrus D. Mehta and Brad Banias, Oct. 25, 2021 "Immigration lawyers have filed lawsuits on behalf of several hundred plaintiffs challenging various immigration policies. These lawsuits have involved demanding that the government speed up the processing of...
Cyrus D. Mehta, Kaitlyn Box, Dec. 14, 2020 "In an earlier blog , we discussed ethics for immigration lawyers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another ethical dilemma, addressed by two recent ethics opinions from the New York City Bar and the New York State...
Cyrus Mehta, Sept. 30, 2019 "The Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act has divided the immigrant community as well as immigration attorneys. The bill seeks to eliminate per-country caps without expanding the number of visas in the EB categories. The...
AMA Journal of Ethics, January 2019 "Currently, 800,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients — including many health professionals, students, and patients — face risk of detention and deportation. Loss of DACA status could relegate many...
Cyrus Mehta, June 4, 2016 - "Judge Hanen’s order dated May 19, 2016 reprimanding thousands of Department of Justice lawyers for unethical conduct is astounding because it does not even appear that their conduct was unethical. Much has already been written...
Georgetown Law Professor Orin Kerr raises a good point regarding Judge Hanen's 'rulebook' order : "Hanen does not discuss whether he has the legal authority to impose this remedy. Most of the people who have to comply with this order are lawyers...
" What is the role of the attorney in advising non-citizens who may be committing crimes in Alabama by virtue of simply being alive in Alabama?" - Cyrus D. Mehta, Nov. 11, 2011 .
Cyrus Mehta, July 18, 2022 "Terminating an employee is always a very difficult decision, and requires the employer to comply with various state and federal laws. Terminating a noncitizen employee requires additional considerations under US immigration law...
Cyrus D. Mehta and Kaitlyn Box, May 31, 2022 "On May 16, 2022, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Patel v. Garland , a decision that has devastating implications for the reviewability of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (“USCIS”) actions...
NYSBA Ethics Opinion 1203 (Oct. 8, 2020) "An attorney may withdraw from representation, with the permission of the Immigration Court, based on fear of contracting COVID-19 as a result of in-person appearances in the proceeding, where such fear renders it...
Cyrus Mehta, June 15, 2020 "Based on my video presentation at a Practising Law Institute One Hour Briefing entitled Ethics and Immigration: Spotlight on Select Rules and Client Representation during Covid-19 , I drew up some frequently answered questions...
Cyrus Mehta, Jan. 21, 2020 "In light of the higher possibility of denials of routine H-1B and L-1 petitions, immigration lawyers may want to consider stepping out of their comfort zones. They should consider thinking about representing the client beyond...