Notable Cases
Defending an Innocent Immigrant - A man who was married to a U.S. citizen was charged with felonious assault on a police officer. If convicted, he would have been deported. Thus, Mr. Muchnicki represented the man in his criminal case. Three police officers testified against the immigrant and the immigrant had no witnesses to confirm his version of what happened. Nevertheless, through his cross-examination of the three officers, Mr. Muchnicki was able to demonstrate that the officers had tried to frame the man because one of the officers disliked persons of color. Based solely upon Mr. Muchnicki's cross-examination of the officers, and after just forty-five (45) minutes of deliberation, the jury returned a not guilty verdict.
Blocking an Illegal Deportation - A woman went to her local INS office to find out why there had been a delay in action on her green card application. Instead of being given her green card, she was handcuffed and taken to a prison over one hundred miles away to await her deportation on a decade old deportation order which she thought had been canceled. Mr. Muchnicki filed a writ of habeas corpus challenging her arrest and deportation. He obtained an injunction halting the deportation. Mr. Muchnicki persuaded the federal judge that the judge had jurisdiction to determine whether the INS had unlawfully refused to agree to re-open the woman's deportation case so that she could obtain her green card. Once the judge agreed that he had jurisdiction, the INS settled the case by agreeing to allow the woman to obtain her green card.
Using Innovative Remedies - A thirty-three (33) year old man was brought to the U.S. when he was eight years old by his relatives after the death of his mother and father. The man grew up believing that his relatives filed all the necessary paperwork for him to legally enter the U. S. and become an American citizen. Twenty-five (25) years after he entered the U.S., he was surprised by a knock on his door from an INS agent serving the man with an order of deportation based upon the fact that there had been an error in the paperwork filed for him when he was a child. At that time, the man no longer could speak or understand his native language and had no family located in his native country. Through the use of a unique and rarely used provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act which allowed non-citizens to automatically become citizens if they served in the U.S. armed forces during a time of armed conflict as certified by the President, Mr. Muchnicki was able to obtain a dismissal of the deportation. After several years of litigation, the INS gave Mr. Muchnicki's client credit for his service in the U.S. Army during the Persian Gulf War. The man was sworn in as a United States citizen.
Protectingthe Child - After his father died, a ten year old boy was imprisoned for a month by government authorities in his home country who had accused him of being a spy for the rebel army. Because the price for his release was his agreement to serve as a spy for the government, the boy's mother knew the boy would wind up being killed by one side or the other. The mother tried to send the boy to relatives in Canada for his own safety. Because the child was so young and did not understand English, the boy got off his plane in the U.S., not Canada. INS officials arrested the youth and placed him into a juvenile detention facility. One of the boy's relatives who was a U.S. citizen, retained Mr. Muchnicki to defend the child from the deportation order that the INS had issued against him. Since the child was only ten years old, it was very difficult for the child to explain what had actually happened to him in his home country. In addition, the child's mother had also disappeared after putting the child on the plane. Thus, there was no way to corroborate what had happened to the child in his home country. This lack of corroborating evidence made it very difficult to present an effective asylum claim to an immigration judge. By filing an action in the local Ohio juvenile court, however, Mr. Muchnicki was able to obtain a judgment that the child was a dependent child under Ohio law. Mr. Muchnicki then used that finding by the Ohio court to convince the INS to grant the child special immigrant status and make the child a legal permanent resident.