Deportability/Inadmissibility Obstruct Path to Citizenship (Ⅰ)

James called the other day to ask our advice. He wanted to know if he did the right thing in listening to his public defender (PD) and taking a guilty plea to simple assault. It seems that he was involved in a barroom fight a few weeks ago and charged with several crimes. The prosecutor agreed to knock everything down to a single count of assault in return for a guilty plea, with a suspended sentence and unsupervised probation. James a public defender said that it was a great deal and that he should take it quickly. James told his public defender a couple of times that he is here on an H-1B visa and that he doesn’t want this to affect his job or getting his green card. The PD said he wasn’t sure but that shouldn’t be a problem. James may or may not have problems moving forward.

Overview of Current Law

Understanding the immigration consequences of a particular criminal disposition can be very complicated and involves careful analysis of the elements of the state and/or federal offense and the state particular disposition of the case under federal immigration law.

In order to understand the immigration consequences of a particular criminal case disposition for a particular immigrant, you must first understand the distinction between the criminal grounds of deportability and the criminal grounds of inadmissibility, and when each applies.

Deportability v. Inadmissibility

There are two separate parts of the immigration law that may trigger removal based on a criminal offense he grounds of deportability found at INA 237(a)(8 U.S.C. 1227(a)) and the grounds of admissibility found at INA 212(a)(8 U.S.C. 1182(a)). Which set of grounds may apply to an individual, or whether both apply, depends on the individual particular immigration status and situation. "Deportability" refers to the power of USCIS to expel an alien from the United States, whereas "inadmissibility" refers to the power USCIS to refrain anyone from entering the


Source:Visapro