Crimes Against Moral Turpitude

So in my last post, I mentioned that I would do a more detailed post on Crimes Involving Moral
Turpitude (CIMT). First off, a committing a CIMT is grounds for deportability. This post will describe 1) What is a CIMT?; and 2) When Will a Crime of Moral Turpitude Make Someone Deportable?.

1) What is a CIMT?

Unfortunately, CIMT is not defined within the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), and is not a something that immigrants will be told that have committed when they are arrested or formally charged. Congress has left it up to the courts to determine its definition and even that has resulted in a comprehensive, agreed upon list. The biggest issue is that each crime is different in each state, resulting in different penalties and different factual scenarios.

In law school, I was taught that many people look at a CIMT as something that "shocks the public conscience as being inherently base, vile, or depraved, contrary to the rules of morality and the duties owed between man and man, either one’s fellow man or society in general.”​

With that said, many people can, for the most predict what could be considered a CIMT. For example, murder or kidnapping, are crimes that most people can agree on that would shock the public conscience. However, some crimes are not so easily identifiable. For example, any theft crime is considered a CIMT. That can include a $10 shoplifting trip to Walmart. In my last post, I mentioned a client who accidentally walking out of a store without paying for the shoes that she put on her child's feet. That accident, caused her to commit a CIMT.

Now this may seem harsh, but these are the guidelines that the courts have given us. The problem is that depending on the state the crime is committed, it can be difficult to figure out what crimes reach the level of a CIMT. For your benefit here are 6 categories that may be of use to you when trying to figure out if your immigration status is at risk.

1. Crimes Against the Person, such as murder, voluntary or reckless manslaughter, aggravated battery, kidnapping, attempted murder, assault with intent to rob or kill or to commit abortion or rape, domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, child neglect, child abandonment, violation of a protection order, and repeated harassment or bodily injury.
2. Sexual Offenses, such as rape (whether common law or statutory), adultery, bigamy, prostitution, lewdness, sodomy, gross indecency, and possession of child pornography.
3. Crimes Against Property, such as burglary (if the intended offense involves moral turpitude, since unlawful entry and remaining unlawfully on a property by themselves are not CIMTs), and breaking and entering to commit larceny.
4. Theft Offenses, such as trafficking in counterfeit goods and receipt of stolen property, which may be both a CIMT and an aggravated felony.
5. Crimes Against the Government, such as counterfeiting, perjury, willful tax evasion, bribery (or attempted bribery), using the mail to defraud, misprision of a felony, harboring a fugitive, conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, making false statements to avoid being drafted, and draft evasion
6. Crimes Involving Fraud, whether against government or individuals, except for false statements not amounting to perjury. Examples include forgery, making false statements to obtain a U.S. passport or U.S. naturalized citizenship, a driver's license, or a firearm; passing bad checks; false representation of a Social Security Number; money laundering; and conspiracy to affect a public market in securities.

This is not a complete list (since one does not exist), but this can be useful. This list was obtained at https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/immigration/deportation/grounds-for-deportation-moral-turpitude.html. 

2. When Will a Crime of Moral Turpitude Make Someone Deportable?.

The I.N.A. makes removable a non-citizen who has been either:

1. convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT) that was committed within five years after the date of admission to the U.S. and resulted in a sentence of imprisonment for at least one year, or
2. convicted of two CIMTs not arising out of a single scheme of criminal misconduct, with neither the time of commission of the offense nor the sentence imposed being relevant.

However, a non-citizen who has been convicted of a single misdemeanor that's classified as a petty offense is not removable, so long as the actual sentence that was imposed was six months or less, and the maximum sentence that could have been imposed is no more than one year. For more on this subject see my previous post here.

Well that is about all there is to say on this subject in this forum. I hope this article helps, if you have any more questions or need legal advise please contact me either by email or by phone. I am here to help. This is my passion and I want to help.