Consequences Of A Criminal Record For A Would Be Immigrant
Any would be citizen of the US who gets arrested, arraigned, and whether tried and convicted or pleads guilty to a criminal charge is likely to have some severe adverse consequences manifest themselves as far as his immigration status goes. He could find himself (herself) removable, inadmissible as a citizen and blocked from re-entry or be denied legal status as an immigrant juvenile for example.
It is ardently recommended that any immigrant caught up in a criminal case be very careful in looking for a Los Angeles Criminal Immigration Lawyer to consult should you have any doubts as to the seriousness of your offence. And you are well-advised to regard any arraignment for anything more severe than an infraction, such as speeding or littering, extremely seriously.
It is up to the immigration court to ascertain whether elements of the offense you have been convicted of correspond to the elements specified in the Federal immigration law. They will want to check the offense to see if it falls within the types of offenses in Federal Immigration Law. If it doesn’t then your worries may be over this time. If not then:
They will then check out the circumstance specifics of the conviction. For instance an aggravated felony might be determined by the amount involved in the crime ($10,000 fraud for example) or that it was part or a commercial activity. (running a brothel eg)
A crime of violence under Federal law constitutes an aggravated felony if the conviction imposed exceeds a year. It must be noted that Violence involved need not necessarily in reality have been used but that the court was satisfied in convicting the defendant that a credible threat of violence was possible.
Apart from aggravated felonies there are Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude. This is a passably wide category and no law really specifies or lists such crimes. The determination of what constitutes CIMTs has largely been by case law. Examples encompass findings that the defendant intended to defraud, that he intended to inflict bodily harm, theft of property etc. Extenuating circumstances might be looked at but any 2 convictions of Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude make one deportable, regardless of sentence, and there is no statute of limitations. Any conviction stays on your record until naturalization. Any conviction related to controlled substances makes one automatically inadmissible. An exception is the conviction of possession of marijuana of not more than 30g which was for private smoking
A further crime which makes one deportable is a conviction of smuggling of persons, which includes anything to do with assisting an illegal immigrant enter the US or stay here. The only exceptions allowed are that the person thus assisted was your spouse, parent, son or daughter. Anyone else and out you go.
If you have been convicted of any such crime and are still in detention then a way out is to apply for a Motion to Vacate Judgment in CA which includes motion of Habeas Corpus and showing that you were unjustly convicted. These motions are time sensitive so contact the attorney very soon.