Any time someone who's not a citizen of the United States
is convicted of a crime, and later-- sometimes years later--
they find that it has triggered immigration consequences,
that is they're about to be deported or removed
from the United States, they're not
allowed renter the United States,
they can't adjust their status, or they're not
allowed to naturalize and become a citizen.
But in many of these situations, there
are avenues of what we call post-conviction relief.
That is ways that we can go back retroactively and attack
or negate the conviction in order
to avoid those immigration consequences.
And in this video, I'm going to talk
about the five most common and typical ways
to get post conviction relief.
The first is to run a motion to overturn or vacate
the conviction based on ineffective assistance
of counsel.
Basically, saying that the defense attorney was
incompetent.
The second is resentencing for conviction
for an aggravated felony.
Now, usually aggravated felonies are
only deportable if there's a sentence of one year or more.
So sometimes we can go in and have
the person resentenced to 364 days in jail--
just under a year.
And that'll do the trick and avoid deportation.
The third is to reduce a felony to a misdemeanor.
The fourth is a motion to withdraw a guilty plea
or no contest plea.
And the fifth is a habeas corpus petition
in a situation where the person is still in custody.
If you're in one of these situations
where you have a conviction that's causing immigration
consequences, you want to be sure and get an attorney who
understands not only criminal law, but immigration law
as well.
Because the system is complicated,
but there are a lot of different ways
to attack the prior conviction to obtain
post conviction relief.
And ultimately, to keep you in the United States,
and keep you on a track where you have an opportunity to gain
citizenship.