The WNY Regional Immigration Assistance Center offers no-cost assistance, training, and support to appointed criminal defense counsel and Family Court attorneys representing indigent non-citizen clients. The RIAC can also assist with the analysis and filing of a NY CPL § 440.10 motion for ineffective assistance of counsel if a client was not properly informed of the immigration consequences of a plea. These services are available to all attorneys appointed for such clients in Criminal and Family Court proceedings.
We Exist to Protect Noncitizen Rights in Criminal Cases
Changes to immigration laws have dramatically raised the stakes of a noncitizen’s criminal conviction. Providing accurate legal advice for noncitizens accused of crimes has never been more important.
Deportation is an integral part — indeed, sometimes the most important part — of the penalty that may be imposed on noncitizen defendants who plead guilty to specified crimes. As such, the Supreme Court ruling in Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010), now requires criminal defense attorneys to advise noncitizen clients as to the potential immigration consequences of a criminal conviction before taking a plea.
When to Contact Us
Representatives of criminal defendants should contact us as soon as possible following arraignment so that we can help determine the immigration consequences of your client’s plea. For mandated Family Court representation, please contact us anytime to discuss potential consequences of adverse findings or settlements. We offer free CLE trainings; call us to schedule one in your office or to inquire about scheduled dates.
Sophie Feal
WNY RIAC Managing Attorney
Sophie Feal is the Managing Immigration Attorney of the WNY Regional Immigration Assistance Center at the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, where she served as a public defender from 2017 to 2020.
She was previously the Director of the Immigration Program at the Erie County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP), Inc. where she launched several innovative programs: a universal representation program for indigent noncitizens detained at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility; a weekly legal orientation and pro se training program for noncitizens detained by the Department of Homeland Security; programs that serve unaccompanied immigrant youth, and survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking; recruiting, training and mentoring pro bono attorneys to represent immigrants before the Immigration Court, Board of Immigration Appeals, and the federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, as well as a Regional Immigration Assistance Center. She has also practiced in San Francisco and Washington, DC in her career of over thirty years.
Sophie has also spoken publicly about and published extensively on immigration and naturalization law issues and has served on New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Immigration Representation. She was elected and served on the Board of the Women’s Bar Association of New York—WNY Chapter from 2017 to 2019, and was elected to a three year term on the Board of Directors of the Bar Association of Erie County (BAEC), which she served from 2014 to 2017. She has also been Chair of BAEC’s Human Rights and Immigration Law Committees.
Herself an immigrant, she was raised speaking French and Spanish, is a graduate of the University of Buffalo Law School and earned a B.A. at Buffalo State College.
What You’ll Need
Please have as much of the following information available as possible at the time of your initial contact.
- Client’s Name and Date of Birth
- Client’s Country of Birth
- Client’s Immigration Status
- Client’s Date of Admission/Entry to U.S.
- Penal Law Section Charged
- Is there a Domestic Violence element involved?
- Penal Law Section in Plea Negotiation
- Prior History of Convictions
- Any Removal Proceeding pending?
- Any Family Court case pending?
