Crimes of moral turpitude and deportation

 Posted on October 07, 2022 in English

The immigration laws in the United States are incredibly complex. As such, it can be difficult to navigate them and know, exactly, how divorce and criminal matters may affect your immigration status. This can be incredibly stressful, especially if you're facing criminal charges that you're afraid may lead to deportation. That's why it may be helpful for you to know more about what sorts of offenses may lead to removal. Perhaps then you can come up with a strong strategy to protect your immigration status.

The effect of crimes of moral turpitude

Under existing immigration laws, you can be denied a green card or even removed from the country if you are convicted of a "crime of moral turpitude." Someone who is convicted of one of these offenses may struggle to demonstrate that they have the good moral character necessary to successfully seek citizenship. In other words, mere allegations of having committed one of these crimes can threaten your future.

What is a crime of moral turpitude?

Part of the problem with navigating this immigration law issue is that it's not immediately clear what constitutes a crime of moral turpitude. Generally speaking, though, these crimes are often thought of as being depraved and shocking to the public conscience. They've also been referred to as morally reprehensible and intrinsically wrong. However, this sets a subjective standard that can render this determination, made on a case-by-case basis, rather tricky. This means that it may or may not matter if the crime in question is a misdemeanor or a felony.

What are examples of crimes of moral turpitude?

Even though this assessment is rather subjective, there are some criminal offenses that are typically found to be crimes of moral turpitude. They include:

• Murder
• Child abuse
• Kidnapping
• Rape
• Robbery
• Fraud
• Voluntary manslaughter

This isn't an exhaustive list of crimes that may affect your immigration status, which is one reason why you might want to speak with an experienced immigration and criminal defense attorney before taking any sort of plea deal in your criminal case.

Defending against crimes of moral turpitude

If you've been charged with a criminal offense, you need to carefully analyze it to determine if it's a crime of moral turpitude before agreeing to a plea agreement. If it's too late for that, you'll want to be prepared to defend yourself in immigration proceedings.

The good news is that you may have some room to argue here since the definition of a crime of moral turpitude is so broad. Therefore, you should try to gather evidence and generate legal arguments that demonstrate that your actions were not fraudulent or intended to hurt someone. To ensure that you're properly assessing your case, though, you should consider speaking to an attorney of your choosing.

Fight to protect your immigration status

There's certainly a lot at stake if you've been charged with a criminal offense. In the blink of an eye, you may lose the immigration status that you've worked hard to obtain. As a result, everything that you hoped the future would bring you can be stripped away.

Don't let that happen by being too lax in your approach to your criminal and immigration law issues. Instead, think about how you can aggressively advocate to protect your interests. If you think that you could benefit from some assistance in that regard, now may be the time to reach out to the experienced legal team that you think will fight for you most effectively.