Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(A)  In General.  Many important immigration consequences flow from a sentence in which the court orders the defendant to serve a certain length of time in criminal custody.  See § 10.64, infra.  At sentence, counsel can employ various tactics in an effort to prevent this outcome:

                (1) Obtaining a sentence of less than the trigger amount;

                (2) Waiving credit for time previously served;

                (3) Waiving future credit for time served;

(4) Stacking shorter sentences on different counts even if they are served consecutively;

(5) Sentence enhancement sentences may not count as part of the sentence ordered for the offense of conviction itself[50]; and

(6) Reducing the level of the offense from felony to misdemeanor.  See § § 11.13-11.15, infra.

[50] See § § 10.56-10.60, infra.