Pryor Cashman won a significant victory in July 2012 when it obtained a grant of cancellation of removal proceedings filed against its Pro Bono client, a first generation immigrant from Ghana and lawful permanent resident of the United States.

After cooperating with authorities in 2007 and pleading guilty to a charge of aiding and abetting the filing of false federal income tax returns resulting in a $5,125 loss to the Government Pryor Cashman's indigent client was sentenced to five years probation set to expire in October of 2012 and a $3,000 fine was imposed. Following the guilty plea, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiated removal proceedings (similar to deportation proceedings) against the client, who had been residing in the U.S. for 16 years. The client was released on bail in 2008.

Following nearly two years of motion practice adverse to the DHS, the Pryor Cashman team filed an application on behalf of their client for discretionary relief from removal proceedings pursuant to INA § 240A(a) in 2009.

After a comprehensive immigration hearing, Newark immigration judge Frederic Leeds on July 16, 2012 determined that Pryor Cashman's client had satisfied the statutory requirements for relief and that the equities weighed in favor of canceling the removal proceedings and terminating the notice to appear filed against him.

The Pryor Cashman team which achieved this significant victory (only 3,994 removal proceedings were cancelled by U.S. immigration courts in 2011) was comprised of Partner Robert Ray and Associates Ross Bagley and Rachel Pasternak, all members of Pryor Cashman’s Litigation Group.

DHS has 30 days to appeal the decision to the Bureau of Immigration Appeals.