Early for my client's 10:10 citizenship interview 26 miles away, I arrived at 9:30, walking into the lobby past the picture of Trump. Pierre, my client, was already there. Why was I even there? I can't take the civics test for him. I'm not even allowed to speak in the interview. Because he paid you, that's why you're here.
I didn't feel good about this. I had ordered Pierre the citizenship test manual but he cannot read. Can't write. He's illiterate. He said his grandson would read it to him. Months later I got a call from the grandson. Pierre wasn't doing well in the test prep. "He paid you to help him get citizenship," the grandson said. "Ask him how much I have to pay him to get citizenship," I heard Pierre ask in the background. Clients frequently think like that. "I better get me a lawyer on this one." Yeah, with 15 eyewitnesses, fingerprints, DNA, a videotaped full confession and the murder weapon found under the pillow that my head was sleeping on when the police broke down the door to my house, I better get a lawyer this time to get me out of this. They think a lawyer can sprinkle magic dust and Poof! the evidence goes away. "I paid you to get me out of this!"
"Tell your grandfather it's not a matter of money. I can't take the test for him. I'm not even allowed to speak." "He paid you to get him citizenship." "Look: If a drug test was required for citizenship, I couldn't pee in a bottle for him." He got it with that example.
Pierre is a wonderful man. 64 years old, just retired from working all his life here as a stock man at A&P, permanent resident, 36 years here, same residence for 15 years, just two arrests, both in 1998, one for gambling, one for being drunk in public, both misdemeanors. but gambling is a
"crime of moral turpitude"
to the immigration gumshoes and Pierre was denied citizenship for the gambling arrest in the early 2000's. Had a lawyer, too. He has diabetes, can't hear or see well, can't read or write, speaks and understands English if you use just the important words and speak loudly and slowly, and speaks in a deep, gravelly, slurred, accented voice. He speaks and understands Creole. I understood one-quarter, maybe one-third, of the words he spoke in English and hope they were the important ones. I had checked the "55/15" (age, years in U.S.) box on his application when he was in my office after debating within myself and explaining the alternatives to him. Which meant the interview would be conducted in English.
I did not feel good about this.
I didn't feel good about this. I had ordered Pierre the citizenship test manual but he cannot read. Can't write. He's illiterate. He said his grandson would read it to him. Months later I got a call from the grandson. Pierre wasn't doing well in the test prep. "He paid you to help him get citizenship," the grandson said. "Ask him how much I have to pay him to get citizenship," I heard Pierre ask in the background. Clients frequently think like that. "I better get me a lawyer on this one." Yeah, with 15 eyewitnesses, fingerprints, DNA, a videotaped full confession and the murder weapon found under the pillow that my head was sleeping on when the police broke down the door to my house, I better get a lawyer this time to get me out of this. They think a lawyer can sprinkle magic dust and Poof! the evidence goes away. "I paid you to get me out of this!"
"Tell your grandfather it's not a matter of money. I can't take the test for him. I'm not even allowed to speak." "He paid you to get him citizenship." "Look: If a drug test was required for citizenship, I couldn't pee in a bottle for him." He got it with that example.
Pierre is a wonderful man. 64 years old, just retired from working all his life here as a stock man at A&P, permanent resident, 36 years here, same residence for 15 years, just two arrests, both in 1998, one for gambling, one for being drunk in public, both misdemeanors. but gambling is a
"crime of moral turpitude"
to the immigration gumshoes and Pierre was denied citizenship for the gambling arrest in the early 2000's. Had a lawyer, too. He has diabetes, can't hear or see well, can't read or write, speaks and understands English if you use just the important words and speak loudly and slowly, and speaks in a deep, gravelly, slurred, accented voice. He speaks and understands Creole. I understood one-quarter, maybe one-third, of the words he spoke in English and hope they were the important ones. I had checked the "55/15" (age, years in U.S.) box on his application when he was in my office after debating within myself and explaining the alternatives to him. Which meant the interview would be conducted in English.I did not feel good about this.
