Our immigration system disfavors foreigners who commit crimes. The common wisdom is that criminals should be afforded an opportunity to build a life in the United States. The Congress made sure that this wisdom is reflected in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) the primary law which governs immigration to and removal from the United States. Though not all, many criminal acts carry adverse immigration consequences. INA contains two primary sections in which these consequences are described and criminal activity, which leads to them identified.

INA§212 (a) codified as 8 USC § 1182(a) lists all grounds of inadmissibility and identifies criminal activity, which causes them. Inadmissibility is a legal concept that prohibits foreigners s ubject to it from entering the USA or adjusting their immigration status to that of an LPR. Unless waived, inadmissibility is an insurmountable predicament to becoming a Legal Permanent Resident in the United States. As to waiving it, there are very limited waivers of inadmissibility available when it caused by the foreigner’s criminal activity. For the most part, such waivers are sparingly granted and only available for people who are able to prove that their departure from the United States would result in extreme hardship to their parents, spouses or in some cases, children. Inadmissibility may also carry other serious consequences including mandatory detention by the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) and expedited removal from the United States without ever seeing an immigration judge to present reasons why such person should be allowed to stay in the USA.

INA §237(a) codified in 8 USC § 1227(a) presents another problem for the foreigners who have committed crimes. It identifies criminal convictions, which renders these aliens removal from the United States including those holding Legal Permanent Resident status. These reasons are called grounds of deportability. In this regard, LPRs are also considered aliens and are afforded though some but very little leeway when it comes to the immigration consequences of the criminal activity they engaged in. If the alien is found deportable he or she might seek such grounds of deportation cured but only few such remedies are available under the law. For instance, successful adjustment of status application would cure the removability but not inadmissibility grounds. On the other hand, some forms of criminal activity do not trigger inadmissibility while others do not trigger deportability. In short, the analysis of the immigration consequences of a criminal activity and potential relieves available often gets rather complex and requires a diligent study of the record of conviction as a whole as well as the expertise of an experienced immigration attorney.