By Debra Bruno
July 24, 2017
With members in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, the D.C. Bar正在开始一个常规功能来介绍组成我们社区的人. 阅读你的同龄人，他们的生活，他们在世界各地的工作.
移民——不管是有证件的还是无证件的——在法庭上常常会遇到麻烦. English is often not their first language, misunderstandings are rife, 有时，一个看似很小的错误就可能导致被驱逐出境.
父子澳博appClaudio Gnocchi和Paolo Gnocchi在他们的刑事辩护和移民实践中看到了这一切. The Gnocchis, of Italian heritage who hail from Puerto Rico and speak English, Spanish, and Italian, work in tandem at the Law Office of Paolo Gnocchi, LLC, in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Paolo handles criminal proceedings. Then, frequently, he passes some of his clients on to father Claudio, 他是一位退休的陆军法官，专门研究移民问题. 有时情况正好相反——有移民问题的客户可能需要先解决他或她的刑事案件.
这两个人发现，他们的专业领域与大多数其他法律行业不同, both because immigration issues in the Washington, D.C., area are different than in, say, California, 而且很少有人明白，刑事法庭上的一个失误如何可能对非公民造成更大的后果.
“Someone who is used to representing U.S. 市民可能会认为承认酒后驾车没什么大不了的，”保罗·格诺奇说. “但对于拥有不同移民身份的人来说，”会有更大的影响.
在他执政期间，奥巴马总统开始加强移民执法. 如果他们被指控犯有轻罪，“传统上被单独留下的人突然成为驱逐出境的优先对象”, Paolo says.
Many immigrants in this area, Paolo says, have Temporary Protected Status, 授予某些指定国家的合格国民，允许他们工作，但不提供获得永久居留权或绿卡的途径. In other words, while they have a temporary right to be in the U.S.在美国，即使是很小的轻罪，比如无证驾驶，也可能导致被驱逐出境. The irony, says Paolo, is that until very recently D.C. and Maryland did not allow non-citizens to get driver’s licenses.
另一个复杂因素是，许多移民来自拉丁美洲国家，那里的公证人传统上也是澳博app. Many immigrants from these countries assume, understandably, that notaries here also are qualified to offer legal advice. 情况并非总是如此，移民最终可能会得到不正确的法律建议.
“我们意识到需要一位会说西班牙语的有能力的辩护澳博app，”保罗说.
That’s where dad Claudio, 68, comes in. 在长期担任陆军澳博app和美国国防部民事澳博app顾问之后.S. 国防部，克劳迪奥退休了，但他很快发现他还没有完全结束. “After six months, I was crawling the walls,” he says.
保罗插了进来，告诉他的父亲，他在刑事法庭上的许多客户都有移民问题. “他对我说，‘你为什么不下来看看它是如何工作的，看看它是如何进行的?’” Claudio says.
He found it fascinating. He signed up for D.C. 移民法的澳博app课程，他现在说他希望自己早点开始. In a short time, he had about 200 clients. “This is what I really like to do,” he says.
Much of Claudio’s work is representing clients before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Arlington asylum office. “A lot of lawyers will say, ‘Good luck with your interview.’ That’s a good recipe to have your client fail,” he says. Instead, 他为客户准备可能被问到的各种问题，这样他们的庇护就不会因为“愚蠢的理由”而被拒绝.” For instance, Claudio says, 一对合法结婚的夫妇可能会被配偶使用哪种牙刷的问题绊倒.
Occasionally, 保罗将参考他父亲的案例，他已经能够减少指控, 但这仍然需要一位优秀的移民澳博app来帮助客户处理可能出现的移民问题.
保罗也经常发现自己在一些令人不安的案件中代表客户. One of them was the case of Audias Sanchez, 2013年，他在蒙哥马利县与另一名司机的即兴超速比赛中导致一名4岁儿童和两名家庭成员死亡，去年被判20年监禁, Maryland. 保罗辩称，他的客户桑切斯并没有和另一辆车比赛.
“I think my client was innocent,” he says. But, more importantly, he says, “I believe in the system. When somebody is accused of a crime, 他们有绝对的辩护权和无罪推定.”
在他的当事人有罪的情况下，他也对司法系统抱有同样的信心. 他说:“如果他们违反了规定，这个制度也会起作用。.
克劳迪奥·格诺奇在他的军法署工作中也接手了一些棘手的案子. One job, for instance, was to represent Army death row inmates. 克劳迪奥这样做了四年，而大多数澳博app只能做两年，他说. 这份工作包括在军事法庭上进行口头辩论，很像美国的军事法庭.S. Supreme Court. Those bi-weekly arguments, he says, “really honed my skills at legal arguments and at writing briefs,” skills he now uses in his immigration work.
如今，Paolo Gnocchi澳博app事务所比过去安静多了, 部分原因是许多移民由于担心被驱逐出境而不愿引起人们的注意. Even when they may have worked out a deal—supervised probation, for instance—clients could be entered into a federal database. “The next thing they know, 有个移民官员在法院外面等着他们,” Paolo says.
“那些本该低调行事的人会有一些小事情, 他们现在成了逃犯，一旦跨越州界就会被逮捕,” Paolo says. He has had clients tell him that they won’t go to court, no matter their case, so they can avoid deportation, he says.
但很多客户都喜欢父子团队接手他们的案子. “They call me Paolo’s dad,” says Claudio. “They assume I must have taught Paolo all he knows. 所以我利用他的名声和他对我的客户的善意，效果很好.”
