Meet the Team: Anthony S. DeLucia

CH: Thanks for being here, Anthony. To start, could you tell us a bit more about yourself and why you decided to become an attorney??

AS: Sure, I'm from Rochester, NY. I'm the Department Director and Supervising Attorney for RFEs and appeals at the firm. I decided to become an attorney because I really wanted to help people. And I know that sounds kind of cliche, but I genuinely wanted to try to provide some sort of benefit to people. I started practicing criminal law. I worked in the Commonwealth Attorney's Office of Virginia for a little bit, and criminal law just wasn't what I felt that I wanted to do. But I definitely did still want to help people, particularly in the appeals and post-adjudication realm. I found myself drawn to arguing and I was decent at it, both written and oral arguments. So, that was sort of the natural progression from there.?

CH: Why did you decide to practice law in the immigration file??

AS: My grandparents are immigrants and I want to try to provide people the opportunities that the United States has and that my grandparents were afforded with. I found it incredibly fulfilling. I've been working as an immigration attorney for coming up on four years now.?

CH: Let's discuss one of your recent EB-2 NIW approvals. Can you please tell me about the case??

AS: Sure, the client was a Colombian Hazardous Waste Management Consultant, and this case was an appeal. So, I was not the original attorney who filed the I-140, but I was the attorney who took on the RFE response and ultimately handled the appeal as well.??

CH: What were the challenges faced in the development of the case??

AS: I worked with the client in response to their RFE, and then, unfortunately, the RFE was denied. After speaking with the client because the client had filed their adjustment status and were in the United States, I recommended appealing because that was the only way that we could have a chance at preserving their ability to remain in the United States. We appealed the case to the Administrative Appeals Office, and ultimately, they were approved.??

We were able to be successful on appeal, which does not happen often. I think anyone who looks at what the non precedent decisions of the AAO are will see that nationwide appeal successes only happen in about 5% to 10% of cases. So, when we got that win, it was great. And this made for the third appeal win on our year at the time, which brought our appeal percentage to around 30%, our appeal success rate. So with this one we were outpacing the national average, threefold.???

CH: What strategy was used to resolve this challenge??

AS: We developed a very thorough and comprehensive case strategy that was built on the back of precedent based legal argumentation. So, a lot of what was required was us to come back through and do very heavy legal research into recent adjudications from the AAO as well as from federal courts to really underscore the fact that what this officer did was incorrect.?

CH: What elements were key to achieve the approval??

AS: A healthy working relationship with the client was key. This particular client was great when it came to working with us. Also the appeals team, I sincerely could not have done it without them in terms of the level of work that went into it, the arguments that were put through for not only the RFE, but for the appeal, while the legal strategy and arguments were of my design, it was the team that helped make it a reality. So, it was definitely a team effort all around.?

CH: How did the client react to the outcome of the case??

AS: They were thrilled! Anytime that a client has been denied and then their appeal is successful, basically giving them a new breath of life into their dream to remain in the United States, it’s an emotional experience. It's a different experience than just an approval, because this particular individual had received an RFE, received a denial, been told by USCIS that their case wasn't good enough, but ultimately, the AAO came through and agreed with our position, so we were all happy.?

CH: Why was this case important to you? Why did you choose this case to talk about??

AS: This case was important to me because it tested my abilities as an attorney. So, again, it was something that I hadn't really done before in trying to be flexible with the way that the officer was adjudicating the case and then arguing not just from one point, but multiple points. In other words it presented novel legal challenges that needed to be overcome in order to get that approval. But ultimately, it just represents a success start to finish.?

CH: What is your favorite part of being an immigration attorney at Colombo and Hurd??

AS: Honestly, it's the stories of hearing from our clients what they do, what sort of path they've taken to this point. Also, that I'm surrounded by an incredible amount of intelligent people that all provide immense benefits to not only myself, but to each other and to the clients. It's a very complete firm that has, what I can only describe as, some of the best talented attorneys and staff that I've ever seen.?

CH: When you're not helping your clients obtain their green cards, what do you like to do in your free time??

AS: Running our farm. My wife, my daughter and I have a farm in upstate New York. My wife primarily runs it but when I'm not doing my attorney thing, I'm helping her out on the farm, trying to take care of all the animals and do what I can on that front.?

CH: Anthony, thank you for sharing your journey and the case with us.?

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