Deportation and Criminal Convictions
A criminal conviction (which includes a withhold of adjudication) can have serious ramifications pertaining to the deportation of someone who is not a United States citizen but who wishes to remain lawfully in the U.S.
The Immigration and Nationality Act sets forth various criminally-related grounds for deportation. Some of those grounds are:
- Crimes of moral turpitude;
- Aggravated felonies;
- Controlled substance violations;
- Firearms violations;
- Domestic violence charges;
- Offenses pertaining to national security.
Because a criminal conviction can have such serious deportation consequences for an individual who is not a U.S. citizen but who wishes to remain legally in the United States, I always ask my clients whether they are naturalized citizens of the United States. If they are not, I routinely suggest that they consult an attorney who specializes in immigration law in order to determine how their pending criminal case might impact their immigration status.
Good point. The already murky criminal defense laws get so much murkier when immigration status is added to it.
O.k. so they commit a serious crime in the US and we as taxpayers must sustain them during the time they are incarcerated? So once they finish their time served we then see them off deported back to their country? How does this make any sense? We in FL have the second largest incarceration rate in the nation and if you research our records you will find that we have prisoners that are serving lengthy prisons sentences (10 yrs or more), who are not US citizens. Or worse yet prisoners who have "LIFE" sentences (and there are sooooooo many), are not US citizens and have an ICE hold on them for deportation upon serving there sentence? If they are serving LIFE when the hell are they going to get deported?? Are we the people ignorant? Is no one paying attention to the misuse of our tax money! Deport these people immediately; use the money towards education, health care or some other productive program. Let's not support prisoner's who don't belong here!