Jim Melo received his Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University and then attended the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill School of Law. Mr. Melo first began practicing as a criminal defense attorney for a few years primarily in Wake County, North Carolina. Although his practice occasionally took him to other surrounding counties. In 2008 when Wake County first started implementing the 287(g) program Mr. Melo became involved with suing the Wake County Sheriff’s office for violating the 48 hour detention rules for immigration holds. Mr. Melo successfully filed several Writs of Habeas against the Wake County Sheriff’s office and won in each case. Due to the ever increasing demand for an attorney who could handle both criminal and immigration matters as a result of 287(g) Mr. Melo began dedicating his practice to handling more and more immigration matters. Since 2009 Mr. Melo has dedicated himself to handling all immigration matters and those criminal matters that affect his immigration clients. Mr. Melo has led several CLE’s throughout the state in regards to the ever increasing nexus between criminal law and immigration.
Now that Mr. Melo has opened his own practice he has expanded his role in protecting immigrants rights. He is now also helping his clients defend themselves from the unsrcrupilous practice of employer’s who take advantage of their employee’s and are unwilling to provide the necessary care and compensation for when they are injured on the job. In addition Mr. Melo is also handling cases involving other injuries as a result of accidents or medical malpractice.
Mr. Melo personally understands and has lived as many of his clients have. His parents and siblings all immigrated from Mexico in the late 1960′s. They were fortunate enough to obtain their legal permanent residence and ultimately their US Citizenship through the Carter administration immigration laws. Mr. Melo’s parents came as migrant workers in California and for their first few years picked many of the fruits and vegetables that are abundant in California. Eventually Mr. Melo’s father was able to gain employment with General Motors in St. Louis, Missouri where he worked the assembly line of the all time iconic muscle car of the US, the Corvette. In time his family was transferred by GM to Albany, Georgia and his parents opened up several popular and busy Mexican restaurants.