Safe Havens

Neither the single CMT conviction ground of deportation, nor the multiple CMT ground expressly lists convictions of attempting or conspiring to commit a CMT as being included in this ground of deportation.  E.g., the multiple-CMT ground of deportation was amended by AEDPA to read as follows:

(ii) Multiple criminal convictions. -- Any alien who at any time after admission is convicted of two or more crimes involving moral turpitude, not arising out of a single scheme of criminal misconduct, regardless of whether confined therefor and regardless of whether the convictions were in a single trial, is deportable.[1073]

This gives rise to the argument that attempt and conspiracy are not included as offenses triggering either of these grounds of deportation.  See § 7.7(B), supra.  There are many older CMT decisions, however, holding that convictions for attempting or conspiring to commit a CMT are themselves CMTs.  This argument would need to distinguish those decisions, in which this argument was presumably not made, on the basis of the more recent decisions on which this argument is based, and cannot be considered a strong argument at this point.

[1073] INA § 237(a)(2)(A)(ii), 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii).