Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(D)  Minimizing the length of the actual sentence to incarceration (if any) initially ordered for the conviction.  This sentence can be imposed either as a sentence to imprisonment, or a sentence to confinement as a condition of probation.  The court can either order the defendant to begin serving it immediately, or after a short delay, or the court can suspend execution of the sentence it has imposed, so the defendant does not have to begin serving it unless s/he violates probation and the suspended sentence is ordered executed.  Different states use different terminology for the act of deferring service of the sentence until the conditions of suspension have been violated and the court has entered a further order canceling the suspension of the sentence.  Under immigration law, there is no difference between a suspended sentence and one that is ordered served immediately.  See § 5.29 and Chapter 10, infra.  Where no sentence has actually been ordered served, however, the conviction does not trigger the grounds of removal that require a sentence to have been ordered.[2]

[2] See e.g., § § 19.10, 20.29, infra.