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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    Live Online with Live Q&A

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Family Law

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Wednesday, November 19, 2025

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.


  • Live Online


    On Demand

$297.00

This course is $0 with these passes:

CLE
ALL

This CLE webinar will examine the complex intersection of family law and immigration law. The panel will focus on custody disputes, deportation risks, and relief options for noncitizen clients. Unique legal challenges surface when families are affected by mixed immigration status. Practitioners may face advocacy through removal proceedings, international custody conflicts, or barriers to family reunification complicated by current challenges to spousal visas. 

Faculty

Flavio Carvalho
Attorney
Flavio Carvalho Law

Mr. Carvalho focuses his practice on Family Law and Immigration. He is the president of the Immigration Law Section for the Contra Costa County Bar Association and a member of the American Immigration Law Association (AILA). Mr. Carvalho has successfully represented clients in family court in seven of the nine Bay Area counties and acquired visas for hundreds of clients over the years.

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Description

Immigration enforcement and constitutional limitations are reshaping how family law practitioners support clients. Clients increasingly face deportation, detention, or separation from their children and spouses. The panel will discuss how immigration status affects custody determinations, protective strategies available to undocumented or detained parents, and the protective frameworks for domestic violence survivors under VAWA and U visa programs.

The panel will discuss the evolving landscape of international custody disputes under the Hague Convention, including return proceedings, habitual residence determinations, and U.S. Supreme Court rulings that define legal standards for cross-border family separation. The program concludes with ethical and strategic guidance for attorneys advising immigrant clients in family matters. 

Listen as our expert panel guides attendees through legal standards, key cases, and evolving strategies at the intersection of immigration and family law, including custody risks during removal, protections for immigrant survivors of violence, cross-border abduction claims under the Hague Convention, and constitutional arguments related to family unification. 

Outline

I. Introduction: interplay of family and immigration law

II. Custody, detention, and risk of removal

A. Custody risks and protective strategies

B. Judicial balance of parental rights and immigration status

III. Domestic violence, VAWA, and immigration relief

A. Available legal protections: VAWA self-petitions, U visas, protective orders

B. Supporting survivors in family and immigration courts

IV. International custody disputes and the Hague Convention

A. International child custody cases involving immigrant parents

B. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction

C. Relevant U.S. Supreme Court decisions affecting habitual residence and return orders

V. Spousal visas, deportation, and the right to marry

A. Department of State v. Muñoz: courts' approach to liberty interests

B. Constitutional arguments and factors affecting deportation

VI. Ethical and strategic considerations

A. Dual representation, conflict checks, client capacity, and communication

B. Trauma-informed advocacy and resources for non-citizen clients

VII. Conclusion

Benefits

The panel will review these and other important issues:

  • Relevance of immigration status in family court proceedings
  • Assess custody risks and protective strategies for clients facing immigration enforcement
  • Evaluate how courts balance parental rights and immigration status in custody decisions
  • Eligibility requirements for VAWA and U visa relief
  • Integrating family court protective orders with immigration advocacy
  • Hague Convention principles and their application in U.S. courts
  • Recognize ethical pitfalls when advising on overlapping family and immigration matters
  • Develop trauma-informed strategies for interviewing and advocacy