Archive | deportation

I. Background

Under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(i) —  which is Section 237(a)(2)(A)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) — a non-citizen “is deportable” if “convicted of a crime of moral turpitude” (committed within a specified period “after the date of admission”) “for which a sentence of one year or longer may be imposed.” (emphasis added).

“Peguero Vasquez . . . was admitted to the United States as a permanent resident in 2012.” See Opinion (“Op”) at 5. In 2017, he pleaded guilty to the New York offense of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the third degree, a Class A misdemeanor, because of “his use of a fraudulent license plate.” Op at 3-5; see N.Y. Penal Law  § 170.20.

But “[i]n 2019, the New York legislature reduced the maximum possible sentence for Class A misdemeanors … (including the forged instrument offense to which Peguero Vasquez pleaded …

President Trump’s executive order titled “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” signed on Jan. 25, may have significant impacts on non-citizens with open federal criminal cases in the relatively near term.  The order is only two days old and does not explicitly withdraw existing agency guidance on most issues it addresses, so it is not clear how soon DHS or DOJ will issue revised guidance to field offices regarding implementation. But federal criminal practitioners should be aware of several aspects of this order that may alter the landscape for noncitizen defendants and should closely monitor their implementation:

1) Some federal defendants who would not have been ICE enforcement priorities before may now be high priorities for removal even pre-conviction.  Obama’s DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson issued a 3-tiered system of ICE enforcement priorities in late 2014.  Once those took effect in 2015, 98 to 99% of all …