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REVEALED: Former Immigration Judges Train Lawyers to Help Clients With Criminal Records Avoid Deportation
Two instructors once prosecuted deportation cases for ICE. They now market their government experience to lawyers fighting removal.
Sep 29, 2026
A national judges’ association hosted former immigration judges to teach lawyers how to help clients avoid deportation—including through the handling of criminal-case records.
The National Association of Women Judges’ May 6, 2026 program promised instruction on “precise plea language and sentencing records.” Its stated goal included preventing ambiguous paperwork from inadvertently allowing federal authorities to classify a client’s offense as an aggravated felony or particularly serious crime.
The speakers were former immigration judges Mimi Tsankov, Maria Lurye and Raisa Cohen. Two had previously prosecuted removal cases for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Both now operate businesses assisting the defense.
As President Donald Trump orders faster immigration enforcement, former officials who prosecuted and decided deportation cases are helping lawyers fight them.
Helping clients avoid deportation after criminal cases
The curriculum focuses on a crucial link between criminal court and immigration enforcement: the records a criminal case produces.
It also promises instruction on documenting ICE incidents, responding to courthouse and home enforcement, and advising clients on the “defensive use of the 5th Amendment during hallway encounters.”
These are legal tools for protecting clients against removal. Criminal defense lawyers must advise clients about deportation risks: in Padilla v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court expressly recognized that plea negotiations can produce convictions and sentences that reduce the likelihood of deportation.
The practical objective is clear: help lawyers handle criminal cases in ways that preserve a client’s ability to remain in the United States.
From prosecuting removal to advising the defense
Lurye spent nine years working for ICE.
Her official speaker biography says she served as an assistant chief counsel from 2008 to 2017, litigating removal cases, supervising trial proceedings and drafting appeals. She then served as an immigration judge from 2017 through December 2025.
Within months of leaving the bench, she was listed as an instructor for the NAWJ training. She now leads Maria Lurye Law, a consulting firm supporting removal-defense attorneys nationwide.
Her firm advertises “Judicially informed strategy and practical guidance shaped by nearly two decades in immigration court.” Its services include the “immigration consequences of criminal charges and pleas.”
Her government experience is now a selling point for lawyers opposing the government in removal proceedings.
Cohen’s firm makes the same pitch: “Former Immigration Judge & ICE Prosecutor Fighting for you.”
The Justice Department’s appointment announcement documents two periods of ICE service between 2009 and 2016. Attorney General Loretta Lynch appointed her to the immigration bench in March 2016.
Her speaker biography describes her subsequent return to private practice, focusing on asylum, removal defense and other immigration matters.
Cohen Immigration Law Group offers other attorneys case strategy, document review, mock hearings and legal training. It advertises flat-fee options and payment plans, and says the former judge’s expertise can help lawyers “attract new clients, and gain a competitive edge.”
Tsankov also has a private immigration-business affiliation. Her NAWJ biography identifies her as an adviser to Manifest Law, which handles employment-based visa applications.
A judges’ association provides the platform
Lurye and Cohen also belong to the Round Table of Former Immigration Judges, according to their speaker biographies.
NAWJ’s October 2025 committee report identifies another overlap: immigration-committee chair Joan Churchill and vice chair Carol King participated in the same group, reviewing opportunities to join briefs in immigration litigation.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association honored the Round Table for “outstanding efforts in support of AILA’s advocacy agenda.” Its announcement highlighted the group’s work on asylum, detention and access to lawyers.
NAWJ’s archive confirms the May webinar aired. The available documents establish its advertised goals, rather than the number of deportations it prevented.
The government’s former prosecutors are now advising its legal opponents. Their knowledge of how removal cases are built—and how immigration judges assess them—is being offered to attorneys working to keep clients in the country.
https://nataliegwinters.substack.com/p/revealed-former-immigration-judges