Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(G)  Immigration Consequences of Petty Offense Exception.[199]  The primary use of the Petty Offense Exception is to excuse inadmissibility on account of a conviction of, or admission of committing, one crime involving moral turpitude.[200]  The exception does not excuse inadmissibility on account of a drug conviction.[201]  The statute defining the Petty Offense Exception does not distinguish between admissions (of a crime or of acts which would form the elements of a crime) and actual convictions and so defeats inadmissibility in both cases.  The Petty Offense Exception also defeats a ground of deportability in which the DHS charges the respondent with having been inadmissible at the time of admission for having committed a crime involving moral turpitude.[202]  In addition, a conviction coming within the Petty Offense Exception cannot be used to preclude a showing of Good Moral Character for purposes of voluntary departure.[203]  A conviction coming within the Petty Offense Exception also will not stop the clock for cancellation of removal applicants.[204]

[199] For additional information, see Rosenberg, No Heartbreaker This Time: Petty Offense Rulings Favor Applicants, 8 Bender’s Imm. Bull. 960 (June 1, 2003).

[200] INA § 212(a)(2)(A)(ii)(II), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(ii)(II).  See, e.g., Reyes-Morales v. Gonzales, 435 F.3d 937 (8th Cir. Jan. 31, 2006) (since one of two convictions was not a crime of moral turpitude, and the other qualified for the Petty Offense Exception to inadmissibility, respondent was not inadmissible for crimes under INA § 212(a)(2), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2), and therefore not disqualified from eligibility for NACARA special cancellation of removal under NACARA § 203), citing Cuadra v. Gonzales, 417 F.3d 947, 949 (8th Cir. 2005).

[201] Correspondence in March-May, 1989, of Odom, Chief of Advisory Opinions Division, Department of State, reprinted in 66 Interpreter Releases 1042-43, 1052-55 (Sept. 18, 1989).  “The Immigration Act of 1990 appears to support that view.  INA § 212(a)(2)(A)(ii) refers to exceptions only for crimes involving moral turpitude.”  I. Kurzban, Kurzban’s Immigration Law Sourcebook 41 (7th Ed. 2000).

[202] Matter of C, 6 I. & N. Dec. 331 (BIA 1954); Matter of H, 6 I. & N. Dec. 738  (BIA 1955).

[203] Matter of Urpi-Sancho, 13 I. & N. Dec. 641 (BIA 1970). See Immigration Law and Crimes, § § 9:2 to 9:9.

[204] Matter of Deando-Romo, 23 I. & N. Dec. 597 (BIA May 8, 2003) (noncitizen convicted of two misdemeanor crimes involving moral turpitude not time-barred by INA § 240A(d)(1)(B), 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(d)(1)(B), since noncitizen’s first crime, which qualified for the Petty Offense Exception, did not render the noncitizen inadmissible; noncitizen was therefore able to accrue requisite 7 years of continuous residence before commission of second offense).