The August 7th publication of the Delaware Wave included an interview with attorney Theodore Murphy discussing the changes in child immigration from Central America in their article “Delaware immigration services feel the pressure”. The law firm has seen a large increase in the number of juveniles in removal proceedings. Most children come from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, where gang violence, poverty and government corruption has forced more than 40,000 children to flee their homes.
Category Archives: Murphy Law Firm News
USCIS Reaches Cap for U Visas
On December 11, 2013, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that they had reached the statutory cap for U Visas for fiscal year 2014 which began October 1, 2013 and ends September 30, 2014.
The cap is currently set at 10,000 visas per year for the U Visa category for immigrants who are victims of certain types of crimes. The cap for fiscal year 2014 was reached in less than three months. Those who have applied for a U Visa and appear eligible, will be placed on a waiting list for when USCIS begins issuing U Visas in the next fiscal year starting October 1, 2014.
The visa cap for fiscal year 2103 was reached by September 7, 2013, just shy of the full fiscal year.
Murphy Law Firm Relocates Georgetown Office
On Friday, September 27, Murphy Law Firm will be moving to a new location at 111 S. Bedford Street in Georgetown, DE. At the new, larger Georgetown location, appointments will be available on both Mondays and Fridays. We had simply outgrown our current location and began looking for a property with enough additional space for our staff to more easily handle our clients’ needs.
Attorney Murphy and the firm’s three additional attorneys will take turns meeting with clients in the new Georgetown location. The firm serves the local immigrant population representing many hispanics and other immigrants from around the globe.
Since immigration is governed by federal law, immigrants residing in Delaware who must see an immigration judge need to travel to federal immigration court in Philadelphia. “We attend court in Philadelphia on a nearly daily basis,” explains Murphy. “Until we opened our previous office in Georgetown in January of 2010, many of our clients were making a four-hour round-trip drive to our West Chester office. It just made sense to provide a location in Georgetown for meeting with our clients.”
The firm will continue Georgetown office hours on Fridays from 10:00 to 4:00 and will also be meeting with clients on Mondays from 10:00 to 5:00.
New Attorney Stephen J. Antwine
Murphy Law Firm welcomes new attorney Stephen J. Antwine. Stephen has a diverse legal background having worked with immigrant communities in Ohio, Nebraska and Pennsylvania. He started his career with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland where he advocated for victims of domestic violence and represented low income clients in divorce, custody and housing matters. Additionally, he developed an outreach program designed to increase legal services available to the immigrant community.
In private practice in Nebraska, he defended clients in juvenile and felony criminal cases. Most recently, he has represented families facing mortgage foreclosure and eviction on behalf of MidPenn Legal Services in Reading, Pennsylvania. He also litigated family law cases involving custody, relocation and dependency.
Stephen is a 2006 graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Law. He is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Russian. He will be helping clients in the West Chester, PA, Gettysburg, PA, and Georgetown, DE offices.