No your lawyer didn't lie to you, but he is just looking at things black and white without being aware of possible exceptions IF you are a citizen. You didn't mention whether you were or not.

I've said it here before and each time I say it, I get people telling me that I'm wrong and just want to put money in lawyers' pockets, but with immigration lawyers, you get what you pay for and a good one is worth his/her weight in gold. There are a lot of lawyers fresh after passing the bar who find they aren't making enough money in family law and writing wills for people and dabble in immigration law and while they can do routine stuff fairly safely, for cases where things get complicated or require maneuvering, they simply go by what they see as general cases and don't dig in deeper. Of course, the lawyer who will dig in deeper will charge for his time too.