Washington Post: Va. Judges to Advise Immigrants That Guilty Pleas Could Mean Deportations

IDP staff attorney Dawn Siebert is quoted in this November 8, 2015 article about a Virginia Supreme Court directive advising trial judges to warn non-citizen defendants of the possible immigration consequences of a guilty plea.

Maryland’s public defenders have a full-time immigration lawyer, Johnson said. And in New York state, regional centers have been set up with immigration lawyers to serve as advisers in criminal cases, according to Dawn Seibert of the Immigrant Defense Project in New York.

Seibert and others noted that simply telling a defendant, at the end of his case, that his conviction could have consequences is too little, too late, for someone unlikely to demand a last-second delay and legal consult.

Having a judge give a warning “is quick and easy, but it’s not meaningful,” Seibert said. “If the goal is to implement Padilla, what states need to do is fund Padilla representation” as New York state has.

Read the full article at the Washington Post.