Criminal Defense of Immigrants

There are three chief immigration consequences of conviction or commission of one or more crimes of moral turpitude:

(1)        Conviction or commission of one or more CMTs will, under certain circumstances, trigger inadmissibility.  See § § 20.25-20.31, infra.

(2)        One CMT conviction will, under certain circumstances, trigger deportability.  See § § 20.32-20.37, infra.

(3)        Two or more CMT convictions will, under other circumstances, trigger deportability.  See § § 20.38-20.41, infra.

Conviction or commission of a CMT may also bar a noncitizen from demonstrating the “Good Moral Character” required for various immigration benefits, such as naturalization.[1]

Under certain limited circumstances, even if there is no conviction, a noncitizen’s admission of having committed a crime involving moral turpitude may trigger inadmissibility (see § 18.8, infra), or disqualify the noncitizen from certain forms of relief.  Merely committing a CMT will not make a noncitizen deportable.

                Noncitizens convicted of, or who have committed, crimes of moral turpitude are, in general, given more lenient treatment under the immigration law than those convicted of aggravated felonies or controlled substances offenses.  Most grounds of relief from removal applied to waive criminal activities will work to waive CMTs.  Remember, however, that a given criminal conviction may be considered a CMT and an aggravated felony and/or controlled substances offense, triggering different immigration consequences from those triggered by a CMT.

Depending on a noncitizen’s immigration status and history, conviction or admission of commission of even a single CMT could mean ineligibility for all forms of relief and mandatory deportation.  Therefore, it is always important to look at the conviction or admission in this context to make an accurate determination of the exact immigration consequences of the CMT.

[1] See § 15.6, supra.