SECURE COMMUNITIES applies to people who are currently getting arrested, I don't have any sympathy for folks currently committing crimes.
I ask the original poster and anyone else to identify ALL the specifics of the "urban legend"-style tales of terror about someone randomly coming under immigration suspicion for absolutely NO REASON and getting deported in 2010 for a shoplifting arrest in 1963 or, like in the article, for a weapons charge from the 1980's (and is that 1981 or 1989?) or other such nonsense claims. They can't becuase it is a pack of lies! I can't tell if such claims are being put forth by genuinely scared (and greatly misinformed) immigrants or by anti-immigrant biggots getting their thrills by scaring immigrants.[/B]
The article that is referred to is obviously biased: stating that the man had no further problems AFTER he finished probation, but gives no details of anything that might have come before AND by the articles' own accout:
"....the new federal Secure Communities program.......... That program, which has not yet begun in New York, is intended to ensure that anyone who is arrested and fingerprinted will undergo an immigration check, and that the names and fingerprints will be compared against criminal databases and immigration records. ...."
How did he come under scrutiny, they could not (or WOULD not?) say. Give me a break....ICE is not randomly trolling around looking to persecute someone for NO REASON. This article is designed to stir up anti-ICE sentiment, misinform, misguide and fool people either to scare immigrants or stir up public sentiment for comprehensive immigration reform which is currently dead in Congress. Tuesday is election day---remember? Form your own opinions and don't fall for this political crap.
People who have made mistakes in the past and have reformed wouldn't be getting arrested now and SECURE COMMUNITIES would be irrelevant.
IN GENERAL:
Some convictions require that they be committed within a certain timeframe under the INA, like 2 CIMT*'s within five years of getting the greencard.
Some convictions require a combination or type of crime and a certain sentence, like a sentence of at least one year for burglary, grand larceny or posessing narcotics for sale......
Some convictions require the possibility of a particular sentence, could be sentenced to imprisonment over one year.
Some situations combine past events, like convictions that resulted in aggregate (combined) imprisonment of five years or more.
Exceptions do exist:
---one CIMT with a minimal sentence can be forgiven.
---a juvenile conviction can be forgiven.
---a one-time posession of less than 30 grams of marijuan can be forgiven.
---political arrests, convictions and imprisonment in a foreign country are to be forgiven, unless they would constitute terrorism or war crimes convictions. (Yes, Nelson Mandela or the Mohatma would be safe here. Milosevic would stand no chance.)
---most foreign convictions over 10 or 15 years old before enetring the U.S. can be forgiven.
---some criminal convictions can be forgiven by means of a discretionary grant of cancellation of removal by an IJ, ceratin ones can't.
---for those really old convictions, some still qualify for the now repealed INA 212(c) waiver IF they agreed to a plea agreement when that relief was still available (it is assumed that they knew they could get relief and that is why they agreed to the plea).
There are some good compilations of information out there on the internet. Some of the best are written by Public Defenders Offices around the country. Some are state-by-state analyses, some are federal statutes, I've seen one that was written by an Immigration Judge out of Las Vegas.
Certain convictions of course will lead to removal no matter when they happened, that is a reality. That's right, no exceptions for, war criminals, terrorists, axe murderes, rapists, and child molesters. Oh, those poor, poor, oppressed immigrant child molesters and wife beaters being heartlessly railroaded into deportation by the evil immigration authorities. (HA!)
*CIMT: Crime Involving Moral Turpitude--a crime that is repugnant, repulsive, base and vile (the charge makes you think the criminal is a dirtbag)-any degree of theft and fraud are the most common--if not too terrible, these can qualify for the exception. Some crimes are CIMT's and something else (worse) like muder, rape, armed robbery, burglary...). Amazingly, crimes of manslaughter and assualt are not necessarily CIMT as they can be crimes of passion--done in the heat if the moment without any thought required. Some crimes of passion are CIMT's--domestic violence: beat your spouse, child or elderly parent and that is a CIMT. Get into it with your physically,equally matched brother and it's just battery and not a CIMT, but if your brother is mentally retarded with the intelligence of a toddler then, it IS a CIMT.
If you actually read the removal (exclusion/deportation) charges in the INA, they actually do make quite a lot of sense but as with anything, there is always room for improvement.
