Criminal Defense of Immigrants

A noncitizen is deportable if s/he is the subject of a “final order” for document fraud under INA § 274C, 8 U.S.C. § 1324c.[172]  This ground of deportation applies only if the noncitizen has already been through the civil administrative procedure established to allow the administrative hearing officer to find him or her in violation of the statute and to impose a civil penalty, and the administrative order has become final.  This ground was added in 1990.[173]

[172] INA § 237(a)(3)(C)(i), 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(3)(C)(i).

[173] This ground of deportability was originally added by the Immigration Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-649, § 544(b), 104 Stat. 4978.  However, this ground was not listed in § 602 of the 1990 Act, which totally revised the grounds of deportation, but was listed in § 601, which revised the grounds of inadmissibility.  This oversight was corrected in the Miscellaneous and Technical Immigration and Naturalization Amendments of 1991, Pub. L. No. 102-232, § 307(h)(8), 105 Stat. 1733, 1756.  For a general discussion of document fraud, see C. Gordon, S. Mailman, & S. Yale-Loehr, Immigration Law and Procedure § 71.07[2][d] (2007).