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Read what some of our clients have said about their experience working with us.
"The treatment from the beginning was very friendly, they were always very kind to explain everything in both languages, in English and Spanish, which helped my husband, they are always very kind. Grateful to my case managers Laura and Jeizon, always very attentive, grateful to the general office."
Hortensia Rodriguez
"I will always recommend this company and these people. They have helped us all the way through my husband’s citizenship. And now are helping us with my father-in-law. They are kind, helpful, and very professional. I would never want to go anywhere else!"
Connie Garcia
"I consulted with other lawyers and the experience was very precarious. With the Ozment office, everything went very smoothly. The attention was excellent. Today, thank God, I am a resident. The work team is always very formal and collaborative."
Yuvisa Garcia
"It’s been a really good journey working with Ozment Law. They have been very helpful with the process of getting my work permit. I recommend anyone to work with people that care about you, the truth is you’ll find these people at Ozment Law."
Akym Valiere
"Super good relationship with the office staff. They treat you with respect and are collaborators, my case manager Selene was very kind, everything was great, many tell you that you have to put pressure on the lawyers but with the Ozment office everything went very smoothly."
Elder Garcia
"Since I started with the lawyers, everyone was very kind, they are all very helpful and today, thanking God, I already have my residence and everything went quickly, thank God and the Ozment office."
Transito Deodanes
"Very well received by the ozment office, their work team is very efficient, my case managers Nelly and Luisa were very kind to me, highly recommended."
Diego Velasquez
"I am very grateful for the work of the Ozment office, lawyer Elizabeth is very kind and since she speaks perfect Spanish, the communication is very good, from the reception to the case managers, today with my travel permit I am one more step in my immigration process."
Juan Montoya
"The experience in the office has been perfect, every question we have had has been helped to solve it, they are all very formal and with professional ethics, we always recommend them from how happy we are with our process."
Sara Toro
"From the first moment I came to the office they treated me very well, the staff was very friendly, the renovation of my residence was fast, 100% recommended."
Teresa Gonzalez
"It was very easy for me because they explained to me very well what they were going to do, everything was very good, good experience with my Jeizon case manager and with the lawyers. I recommend them 100%."
Elvia
"The experience with the office was good, its staff, lawyers and others are very kind, they are very willing to collaborate with clients. I am very grateful for my residency, I recommend it to the entire community."
Mari Tapia
Client seeks asylum, obtains employment-based permanent residence for family
Diego came to Ozment Law seeking asylum from a South American country because he was a community leader and was in danger from pro-government forces. After conducting a thorough assessment analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of Diego’s case, Ozment Law applied for asylum for Diego. During the process, Diego had to leave the United States to protect his family, which resulted in his asylum being considered abandoned. Ozment Law successfully filed an employment-based immigration petition for Diego, going through labor certification with the U.S. Department of Labor and then the immigration service. After two years, Diego returned to the United States with his permanent residence. He and his family now have “green cards” and are living safely in Nashville.
Central American domestic violence victim obtains asylum in immigration court
A victim of severe and longstanding domestic violence left her Central American homeland in seek of refuge and protection. She came to the United States because she heard the United States was a land of freedom and opportunity. She was detained by border authorities and placed into deportation proceedings. She promptly sought help from Ozment Law, which filed an asylum application on her behalf as well as an application for a work permit. Attorneys at Ozment Law helped prepare the victim for her asylum trial. The victim testified consistently and persuasively about the cultural attitudes in her home country that prevented her from being able to successfully leave her abuser. After conducting extensive research, our attorneys presented evidence that the government of her home country was unable to control domestic abusers. As a result, the immigration judge granted the victim asylum. The victim is now eligible for permanent residence in the United States.
Ozment Law forces ICE to return wrongfully deported client
Hairo was given a deportation order years ago. He was then detained for unrelated reasons, and Ozment Law’s attorneys analyzed his case and discovered he had excellent grounds to request that the immigration court reopen his deportation case. Consequently, Ozment Law filed a motion to reopen on Hairo’s behalf. However, while his motion to reopen was pending, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) wrongfully deported Hairo. Through Ozment Law’s advocacy, ICE was forced to return Hairo to the United States for his day in court. In court, Hairo won cancellation of removal, a form of relief for persons in deportation proceedings who have good moral character, a long period of presence in the country, and whose qualifying relative would suffer exceptional and extremely unusual hardship. Hairo is now a permanent resident of the United States.
Domestic violence victim gets visa for crime victims, then green card
“After 16 years, I can finally visit my parents in Mexico thanks to the effort of Mr. Elliott Ozment and his team.”
Historically, immigrant victims of crime were reluctant to come forward to prosecute their attackers. After extensive lobbying on the problem of unreported crime in immigrant communities, Congress passed legislation allowing for the U visa. Only 10,000 U visas are issued each year to immigrant victims of qualifying crimes.
After her husband brutally whipped her in front of her son, Ozment Law, PLC client Maria Murillo cooperated with the police in rural Oklahoma, where she lived, and helped prosecutors bring her attacker to justice.
Then, Ms. Murillo called Ozment Law, PLC. Ms. Murillo hired us to petition the government for a U visa. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved Ozment Law, PLC’s request for Ms. Murillo, and Ms. Murillo was able to get a work card and all the benefits that come with having legal status in the United States.
But Ms. Murillo was not completely satisfied until she could visit her family still living in Mexico. Ms. Murillo also wanted the security that comes from being a lawful permanent resident in the United States, as she knew she wanted the United States to be her home. Again with Ozment Law, PLC’s assistance, Ms. Murillo asked the government to adjust her status to lawful permanent resident. Like many of Ozment Law, PLC’s adjustment of status clients, the case manager working on Ms. Murillo’s case asked her to bring in specific documents to help her chances. Ozment Law, PLC assisted Ms. Murillo in gathering compelling supporting exhibits and completed the required forms for her, all consisting of hundreds of pages.
In February 2015, Mr. Ozment had the privilege of presenting Ms. Murillo with her permanent residency-or “green”-card. She is thrilled about taking her children to visit family in Mexico and share more about their Mexican-American heritage. “I’ll be grateful forever,” Ms. Murillo said.
Ozment Law, PLC criminal client charged with aggravated assault earns “green card”
Recently, a client of Ozment Law, PLC’s criminal attorney obtained his “green card,” meaning his petition for permanent legal residency was approved. Permanent, legal residency in the United States was far from our client’s mind when he was arrested and charged with domestic aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Convictions for domestic assault can lead to swift deportation for immigrants, and our client was charged with the felony “version” of assault. He was accused of using a deadly weapon in the course of the alleged assault. If found guilty of such a crime, immigration likely would have charged our client as an “aggravated felon.” Immigrants found to be “aggravated felons” are not eligible for an immigration bond and are almost always deported. But Ms. Herzfeld prevailed in our client’s case and, working closely with Ozment Law, PLC’s immigration attorneys, successfully litigated the case to preserve the client’s possible pathway to citizenship.
Green card holders can lawfully live and work in the United States, and as long as they follow the immigration and criminal laws, they may be eligible to become U.S. citizens.
Federal court orders Immigration to permit deported Ozment Law, PLC client to reenter United States
Over Ozment Law, PLC founder and managing attorney Elliott Ozment’s strenuous objections, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported a Guatemalan-born immigrant in 2010. Our client, the immigrant, won a post-order motion to reconsider certain aspects of the deportation order, resulting in his removal order being vacated.
However, Ozment Law, PLC’s client was unable to reenter the United States to continue pursuing his immigration case, even though his reopened case was set for a hearing in the Memphis Immigration Court. An immigration judge asked ICE to assist in returning our client to the United States so he could participate in his case, but ICE refused. The government’s behavior caused the client’s immigration case to hang in permanent limbo, even as his very ill U.S. citizen son languished without his father present.
But government push-back only forces Ozment Law, PLC’s attorneys to work harder. Exposing ICE’s conduct as “part of a larger national failure by the federal government,” the federal government settled with our client.
As part of the settlement, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to allow our client to enter the United States pursuant to Significant Public Benefit Parole.
Immigrant shackled to bed while giving birth settles case for $200,000, obtains U visa
In July 2008, undocumented immigrant and expectant mother Juana Villegas was arrested during a stop for minor a traffic violation and taken to jail, where she was determined to be an immigrant by the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. Two days into Ms. Villegas’s detention, her water broke, and she went into labor. The Sheriff’s Office deputies in Nashville placed Ms. Villegas on a gurney with her legs shackled together and her wrists handcuffed together. She remained shackled and cuffed during her labor and delivery.
At the hospital, Ms. Villegas’s medical staff requested the removal of her handcuffs, but Metro removed them for only a few seconds to permit her to put on a hospital gown. She remained shackled and cuffed much of the night of the delivery of her child. The Sheriff’s Office was aware of the medical staff’s orders to remove the restraints but ignored the request. Ms. Villegas remained chained to her bed for the duration of her two-day post-partum recovery, including while she slept, held her newborn son, and nursed him.
Nashville’s treatment of Ms. Villegas turned what should have been a joyous occasion into a nightmare, and unfortunately, their cruel treatment of Ms. Villegas continued after she was discharged from the hospital. The hospital provided Ms. Villegas with a breast pump because she was being separated from her newborn child, but metro refused to allow Ms. Villegas to take the breast pump to the jail, despite pleas from the medical staff. Back at the jail and unable to express her milk without the breast pump, her breasts became engorged, and Ms. Villegas developed mastitis. The preventable illness caused her breasts to become infected and caused excruciating pain. Left with no help by Metropolitan Nashville, Ms. Villegas resorted to asking another inmate to try futilely to express her milk.
Ozment Law, PLC, together with the Nashville law firm Sherrard & Roe, sued to vindicate Ms. Villegas’s constitutional rights. Ms. Villegas’s attorneys obtained a $200,000 jury verdict in her favor. The court found that the jail officers showed “deliberate indifference” to Ms. Villegas’s civil rights. The defendants appealed, and in October 2013, the Metro Nashville government settled the case for $490,000.
As a result of the violations that Ms. Villegas suffered, then-Chief Judge William J. Haynes, Jr., certified that Ms. Villegas was able to show that she was potentially the victim qualifying criminal behavior at the hands of the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. See Villegas v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville, 907 F. Supp. 2d 907 (M.D. Tenn. 2012) (granting Ms. Villegas’s motion for judicial U-visa certification). As Mr. Ozment told The New York Times, “Whether this lady was documented or undocumented should not affect how she was treated in her late pregnant condition and as she was going through labor and bonding with her new baby.”
Ms. Villegas, with Ozment Law, PLC’s help, went from undocumented, pregnant immigrant to the cover story of the Nashville Scene. In October 2014, Ms. Villegas was given a U visa, which is a non-immigrant visa reserved for victims of certain crimes who help the government investigate or prosecute crime and who suffered substantial physical or physical abuse.
With her U visa (and one for her husband, too), Ms. Villegas may lawfully reside and work in the United States for four years, at which time she may renew her visa and eventually apply for U.S. citizenship