Crimes and removal
A criminal conviction affects an immigration case in three separate ways, and a plea has to be checked against all three. It can make you removable. It can make you ineligible for the relief that would otherwise save you. And it can make your detention mandatory while the case is decided. Which of those happens depends on the category of the offense, the sentence, the date, and whether you were admitted to the United States or not.
Current as of October 2026. We re-check this page regularly and after any rule change.
Every ground, one page each
This page is the map. Each ground has its own page below, and each of those pages says what the ground requires, what it closes, and what a defense lawyer can negotiate for instead.
The fastest way to see how the pieces fit for one charge is the plea consequences tool, which applies these rules to the category, the sentence, the dates and the status you enter.
Three things a conviction can do
1Make you removable
If you were admitted, the government charges you under the deportability grounds in INA 237(a)(2) and has to prove the ground by clear and convincing evidence. If you were not admitted, or you are applying for something, the inadmissibility grounds in INA 212(a)(2) apply and the burden is yours. The two lists are compared on the deportability versus inadmissibility page.
2Close relief
Cancellation of removal, asylum, adjustment, voluntary departure, the waivers and naturalization each have their own criminal bars, and the bars are different from the grounds. A conviction that does not make you removable can still bar the relief you would apply for if you were. Each ground page has a table of what it closes.
3Make detention mandatory
INA 236(c) requires detention without a bond hearing for the criminal grounds it lists, and the Laken Riley Act widened the list to certain theft and assault charges on arrest alone. The mandatory detention page covers it, and our detention practice at icebail.com handles the bond side.
The grounds
Each page states the rule, the authority, the thresholds and the negotiating points. Start with the first two if you are new to this.
What counts as a conviction
The immigration definition. Deferred and withheld adjudication, youthful offender, juvenile cases, expungements, suspended sentences.
Read →The categorical approach
Why the elements of the statute matter and the facts do not, what "divisible" means, and who bears the burden when the record is unclear.
Read →Aggravated felonies
The 21-entry list, the one-year and $10,000 thresholds, and everything the label closes.
Read →Crimes involving moral turpitude
What the term means, the one-CIMT and two-CIMT deportability grounds, the five-year rule, and the categories that usually are and usually are not.
Read →The petty offense exception
One CIMT, a one-year maximum, a six-month sentence, and the difference it makes for admission, adjustment and cancellation.
Read →Drug offenses
Any controlled-substance conviction except a single small marijuana possession, paraphernalia, the federal schedules, trafficking, and the reason-to-believe ground.
Read →Firearms offenses
A deportability ground with no inadmissibility counterpart and no waiver, and the federal definition of a firearm.
Read →Domestic violence, stalking, child abuse
The crime-of-violence element, the relationship element, protection order findings without a conviction, and endangerment.
Read →Fraud and theft
Theft with a one-year sentence, fraud with a $10,000 loss, and why both are usually crimes involving moral turpitude as well.
Read →DUI and driving offenses
Why a simple DUI is usually not a ground of removal, when it becomes one, and what multiple DUIs do to good moral character.
Read →Sex offenses
Sexual abuse of a minor, rape, prostitution, registration offenses, and the age rule from the Supreme Court.
Read →Deportability versus inadmissibility
Which list applies to you, why it matters, and the grounds that need no conviction at all.
Read →The stop-time rule
How the date you committed an offense, not the date of the plea, can end the seven or ten years you need for cancellation.
Read →Good moral character
The permanent bars, the conditional bars, the 180-day confinement rule, and what they do to naturalization, cancellation and voluntary departure.
Read →Mandatory detention
The grounds that take away the bond hearing, including the Laken Riley Act's arrest-based grounds.
Read →Where the plea is entered
The immigration rules are federal and the same everywhere. What differs by court is the sentencing structure, the kinds of dispositions available, the advisal the judge must give before a plea, and the filing that undoes a plea later.
Federal court
Federal offense classes, the first-offender statute, immigration crimes, fraud and tax counts, and 2255 motions.
Read →New York
The 364-day class A misdemeanor, violations, youthful offender, the CPL 220.50(7) advisal, and CPL 440.10.
Read →New Jersey
Degrees instead of felonies, disorderly persons offenses, PTI and conditional discharge, and Rule 3:22.
Read →Florida
Withholds of adjudication, the misdemeanor and felony ladder, the Rule 3.172 advisal, and Rule 3.850.
Read →How the pieces fit
The order of analysis is always the same. Is there a conviction under INA 101(a)(48)? If so, which list applies, deportability or inadmissibility? Does the offense, compared element by element, fit a ground on that list, and does any threshold on sentence, date or amount apply? Then, separately, which forms of relief does it bar, and does it make detention mandatory? A plea offer can be tested against every step of that sequence before it is accepted, and a plea already entered can be tested against it afterward. That is what the rest of this site is for: your status for how the answer changes with who you are, plea strategy for what to negotiate, and after a plea for what can still be done.
Read next: what counts as a conviction, aggravated felonies, crimes involving moral turpitude, or the plea tool.
Common questions
Is every crime a ground of removal?
No. Only offenses that fit one of the categories Congress wrote into INA 237(a)(2) and 212(a)(2), or the aggravated felony list in 101(a)(43), are grounds of removal. A great many convictions, including most simple DUIs, most simple assaults and most traffic and public-order offenses, fit none of them. Whether a conviction fits is decided by comparing the elements of the offense to the federal definition under the categorical approach, not by the label the state gives the crime.
Which matters more, the crime or the sentence?
Both, and for different rules. The aggravated felony entries for theft, crimes of violence, forgery and obstruction turn on a sentence of at least one year. The deportability ground for a single crime involving moral turpitude turns on whether a sentence of one year or longer could have been imposed. The petty offense exception turns on a maximum of one year and a sentence of six months or less. A suspended sentence counts in full. The sentence is often the most negotiable part of a plea.
I was never admitted. Does that change the list?
Yes. A person who was admitted is charged under the deportability grounds in INA 237(a)(2). A person who entered without inspection, or who is applying for admission or adjustment, is tested under the inadmissibility grounds in INA 212(a)(2). The lists overlap but are not the same: inadmissibility has no firearms or domestic violence ground, has a petty offense exception that deportability lacks, and reaches admissions and reason-to-believe findings that require no conviction.
Can the tool tell me whether my plea is a ground of removal?
It can tell you what the category of offense you select does under the statute and the precedent on this site, for the status and dates you enter, and it will tell you where the answer depends on the wording of the statute or the record. It does not read your statute or your record, and it does not give legal advice. It is where the conversation starts, not where it ends.
Tell us about the charge before you take the plea. Not after.
You get a free conversation with an immigration attorney, in your language. We speak English, Russian, Spanish and Uzbek in-house, and we bring in a live interpreter for anything else. We will read the charge against the immigration statute, tell you what the offered plea does to your status and to every form of relief, and tell you what to ask your criminal lawyer to negotiate instead. If the plea has already been entered, we will tell you what can still be done.