Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(A)  In General.  While most adverse immigration consequences of sentence are triggered by court-ordered sentence of a certain length, a few are triggered by actual service of a certain length of time in custody as a result of one or more convictions.  See § § 10.73-10.75, infra.  These adverse immigration consequences can be avoided if the client can avoid serving the critical length of time in custody as a result of one or more convictions.  Counsel can employ various tactics to try to achieve this result. See § 10.16(B), infra.  In addition to helping the client avoid certain immigration consequences, these tactics may also help the client achieve a core criminal goal by aiding the client to avoid actual service of all or part of a sentence in custody.  In some cases, a noncitizen may face a very serious sentence and decide s/he would prefer deportation to imprisonment.  See § 10.16(D), infra.