Kuck Fights for Justice for Youssef Megahed

by Dave Bennion

categories: Immigration Detention, Immigration Law

Published August 20, 2009 @ 06:03AM PT

Today immigration attorney Charles Kuck is fighting for justice in the case of Youssef Megahed, a student from Egypt acquitted in federal court on terrorism charges, now locked up and prosecuted by DHS on immigration charges.  This is a favorite tactic of the federal government when they can't win a criminal case, they repeatedly put the person through hell in immigration court, locking them up the entire time if possible.  The government fought the LA 8 case for twenty years before finally losing.  For DHS, there is no such thing as double jeopardy protection in these cases.

Immigration attorneys have a pretty bad reputation in the community, and immigrants know why--standard operating procedure for too many attorneys is to drain the family of all assets then leave them to be deported or maybe seek desperate assistance from a nonprofit or faith organization.  Some attorneys don't have bad intentions but just don't do very good work for their clients.

Well Chuck Kuck is one of the good guys.  He is going where others fear to tread: First representing Lyglenson Lemorin of the Liberty Seven after he was acquitted in federal court then locked up on bogus immigration charges by DHS, and now fighting for Youssef Megahed on whom the government is trying the same tactic. From the WSJ:

A federal immigration judge denied bail Friday to a 23-year-old engineering student from Tampa who has been charged by the U.S. government for engaging in terrorism.

The defendant, Youssef Megahed, has already been acquitted by a federal jury of related charges. But now, he faces essentially the same charges again in an immigration court, where if he is found guilty he faces deportation back to his native Egypt.

Because of fewer due process protections and looser rules of evidence in immigration court, the immigration judge in Megahed's case is now reviewing evidence that was barred from the federal trial because it was too speculative, including internet search history taken from Megahed's computer.

Do you want the federal government interrogating you about your internet searches in court?  I don't. Tell DHS to stop messing with Megahed and his family and the Muslim community in Florida. If someone could help me draft an action to that effect, it would be very helpful.  Please send me a private message if so.

Update: I realized after I posted that I should clarify: there are a lot of very conscientious, dedicated immigration attorneys in the U.S., and some of them have spent a great deal of time mentoring me and other young attorneys.  The immigration bar is uncommonly collaborative and engaged compared to other areas of practice, and many immigration attorneys work very hard for their clients.

But by and large, those are not the attorneys most low-income immigrants interact with.  Undocumented immigrants are uniquely vulnerable in the client-attorney relationship, and abuses and travesties abound.  There are structural problems here stemming from poverty, lack of legal status, and the hypocrisies of the blinkered and self-serving legal profession (that includes the criminal justice system).  AILA and the ABA need to look at those issues more carefully instead of setting up a committee or two, or at some point the issue will be decided by others.  Self-regulation rarely works, whether it is a two-year-old child or a national bar association.