Post-Conviction Relief for Immigrants

This chapter will describe the immigration effects of three forms of state rehabilitative relief:

(1)    state record-clearance relief that is obtained in criminal courts as a reward for successful completion of probation or other evidence of rehabilitation to clear defendants’ criminal convictions from their records without any finding that they are legally invalid, see § § 8.2-8.12, infra;

(2)    judicial recommendations against deportation (JRADs) that were, prior to November 29, 1990, granted by criminal sentencing judges to eliminate deportation and other immigration consequences of convictions of crimes of moral turpitude and aggravated felonies, see § § 8.21-8.37, infra; and

(3)    executive pardons granted by state governors and the President of the United States, which remove many immigration consequences of convictions of crimes of moral turpitude, aggravated felonies, and high speed chase from an immigration checkpoint. See § § 8.38-8.44, infra.

Since the convictions later eliminated by these forms of rehabilitative relief may trigger adverse immigration consequences until they have been ameliorated, some discussion is given to ways in which those consequences can be forestalled until the relief can in fact be obtained. See § § 8.13-8.19, infra.