Your question is an elegant but extremely complicated question in that it underscores one of the chief problems facing Federal Immigration/Deportation Defense Litigation today, all throughout the country, in all Circuit Courts and Immigration Courts therein.

The short answer is that the same actus reus, "criminal act," carries different criminal and immigration law consequences in different states - for example In New Jersey a simple drug possession charge may automatically slap you with an Intent to Distribute, whereas the in New York it would not. Similarly carrying a concealed weapon in Texas is not likely to put you in as much hot water if you were to do the same thing in New York City. But it was the same crime wasn't it?

The answer is that the criminal penal code violations/convictions you spoke of must be researched against the daily changing rulings of the Immigration Courts and the different Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals around the country, to determine if in fact your conviction is in fact a Crime of Moral Turpitude, Aggravated Felony, or an otherwise excludable/deportable offense.

If it is, hands down, you must explore whether under the old case of Strickland v Washington your previous Criminal Defense Attorney or the Courts affirmatively misled you or pressured you to take the Plea Agreement, or under the newer case Kentucky v Padilla (where the threshold to help your case is much lower) whether or not your Attorney properly advised you regarding those immigration consequences of taking that criminal conviction and whether or not you can thereupon vacate that criminal conviction in a formal Motion to Vacate in that original Criminal Court.

I have been doing this almost 10 years (Criminal Immigration/Deportation Defense) and I like to think that I am one of the Pioneers in this area of law. I have also been around on this LawGuru website since 2002 and I see that I have trained or educated at least 1/2 of the Criminal immigration/Deportation Defense Attorneys on this website.

So give me a call at (212) 968-8600 and we will explore your legal options.

As always, the first initial telephonic consultation is free of charge.

Best regards,

RDM