Criminal Defense of Immigrants

The crime-related grounds of inadmissibility are discussed in Chapter 18, infra.  A complete list of crime-related grounds of inadmissibility is given in Appendix E, infra.  The conduct-based grounds, as opposed to the conviction-based grounds, are listed at ibid., [4]-[33].  The latter apply to juveniles, except for those grounds of inadmissibility based on a juvenile’s “admission” of the commission of a crime of moral turpitude or drug-related crime.  As to these grounds, the juvenile’s admission is not to a crime, but instead to an act of juvenile delinquency, and the admission should not trigger inadmissibility. [215]  See § § 12.30, 12.32, infra.

                For Special Immigrant Juveniles, exclusion grounds, other than criminal or subversive grounds, can be waived including the grounds relating to drug addiction and abuse.  See § 12.7, supra.

[215] Matter of MU, 2 I. & N. Dec. 92 (BIA 1944).