(Below is a transcription of this video)
Hi this is Michael Niren, Immigration Lawyer and founder of visaplace.com. Apparently Slava Voynov, I think I’m pronouncing his name right, defense-man for the Los Angeles Kings hockey team, has been detained by immigration. He’s under immigration detention on allegations of domestic abuse, which is a terrible thing of course. Now on the one hand, first of all I don’t know anything about this case. I don’t know about the merits of the case, I can’t comment on whether or not it was appropriate to do so, to detain him. But on larger, more principled grounds, it does illustrate that the rule of law is working, is applying. Meaning that it doesn’t matter if you are a successful hockey player, or business person, if you commit a crime, you should be subject to criminal prosecution, potentially.
Should Immigrants Be Treated Differently?
Now, I have my own opinion about immigrants, themselves. Should they be treated differently than citizens? In my opinion the answer is no. If you are legal in the United States, or in Canada, for example, and you commit a crime, you should obviously do your time if you are convicted. But should you therefore be subject to deportation, immigration detention? My answer is no. Just because you’re not a citizen, should you be discriminated against?
Now if you are illegal here, if you come to the country illegally, that’s, again, another issue that is beyond the scope of this video. I certainly would love to address that in a future video. But strictly speaking, it’s an interesting case, in that, it shows that even if you have money or successful, if your break the law you should be subject to due process. I don’t know what’s going to happen to this hockey player, whether or not he’ll be released, whether or not he’ll be subject to deportation, I highly doubt that. But just on those grounds alone, it’s interesting to observe how the law works.
If you want to follow what’s going on with him, I guess you can Google his name. I don’t really have much more interest in the story, because I’m not involved specifically, but in any event I think it’s an interesting case from that perspective.
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President & CEO
Michael Niren
Mr. Niren is CEO of VisaPlace LLC and the President and Managing Partner of VisaPlace Legal Canada, an immigration law firm based in Toronto, and VisaPlace Legal US a law firm registered in The District of Columbia, USA. Mr. Niren is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Canadian Bar Association’s Citizenship and Immigration Section, American Lawyers Association, and an Associate Member of the American Bar Association.
