Ep. 36 Who can be deported from the U.S. and what are the grounds for removal?

  • having a green card or visa does not mean you cannot be removed
  • these rights depends entirely on the person following certain rules and avoiding certain types of legal violations
  • US citizens cannot be removed unless they use fraud to gain citizenship
  • list of grounds for removal

Raw Transcript:

Introduction: You ask we answer your immigration questions, simple. And now your host immigration lawyer Jacob Sapochnick.

Jacob: Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Ask An Immigration Lawyer. This question comes from Jose and he is wondering who can be deported from United States and what are some of the grounds of deportability?

Well, that’s a great question. Deportation and removal is a sensitive topic and people are always wondering. A lot of people who carry non-immigrant visas or green card holders have the rights to be in United States just like anybody else. These rights depend entirely on them following certain rules and avoiding certain types of legal violations. And so the US immigration launch set forth many grounds upon which a known citizen may be deported, remove back to the person, country of origin. Just because he have a visa or even a green card does not mean you cannot be removed.

The grounds for deportability are set in the law and they apply to anyone already legally living here in United States even with a non-immigrant visa, even with a green card.

Only after actually you become a US citizen you are kind of safe from the grounds of removal deportability. US citizens cannot be removed unless they use fraud to gain citizenship or their green card. So that’s very important to eventually get your citizenship so you can be safe from removal.

So let’s look at some of the grounds. What are some of the grounds for removals? You are inadmissible at the time to the US, you violated your terms of your adjustment of status, you are a conditional green card holder and the status terminated and you did not renew it so now you’re deportable. You have been convicted of an aggravated felony in the time of your admission to becoming to United States. You’ve been committed of high speed flight from an immigration check point – that’s another ground for deportability.

You failed to register as a sex offender, that’s a ground. You’ve been convicted of a drug crime, for example, of more … of 30 grams or more of marijuana. For example you’re being convicted of a domestic violence: stalking, child abuse, child neglect. Falsely representing yourself as a US citizen is another ground for deportation. This is an example of some of these grounds as to why somebody can’t be deportable.

Marriage fraud is another one. If you’re convicted a marriage fraud you are … there’s no way for you to reverse the decision, you are deportable. So just some of these reasons and just give you a little bit of understanding of why somebody could be deported.

We’ll cover the topic of deportation and many other questions that we get but this is just to give you a background.

Once again this information is just as a public service to you guys, we are not your lawyers, and you should consult with the qualified immigration attorney as immigration laws often change.

Thanks for listening. You ask, we answer, simple. See you at our next episode.

Closing: Thank you for listening to the Ask My Immigration Lawyer Podcast, the show that’s dedicated to answering your immigration questions – simple as that. See you next week for another round of questions and much needed answers.