Penalties for DUI For Green Card Holders

If you've got a U.S. green card, or permanent residence, you have a right to stay in the United States permanently, just like the name implies. But you can lose that right for a variety of reasons, among them having committed, or been convicted of, certain criminal acts.

There's no simple list of criminal acts that will lead to this result. Instead, each crime must be analyzed to see whether it falls into one of the grounds of deportability found in the U.S. immigration laws. (Don't confuse these with the grounds of inadmissibility, which apply only to people still in the process of seeking a green card or other admission to the United States.)

Which Grounds of Deportabilty Might a DUI Fit Into?

The immigration laws don't actually mention DUIs anywhere. It's left up to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and ultimately the U.S. courts, to analyze whether someone's crime matches one of the possibly relevant grounds of deportability. The most likely reasons for someone with a DUI conviction to be placed into removal proceedings include conviction of:

• an aggravated felony -- which includes not only serious crimes such as rape, murder, and trafficking, but also various crimes you might not think were felonies, such as theft, obstruction of justice, use of false documents, smuggling, or forgery, where the sentence was, or in some cases could have been, one year or more (don't rely on whether your state's law calls the crime a misdemeanor or a felony -- that doesn't matter for federal immigration law purposes)
• a crime of moral turpitude, committed within five years of admission to the United States, which carries a possible sentence of at least one year
• a crime involving violence
• two separate crimes involving moral turpitude, or
• an offense relating to a controlled substance.

By itself, a DUI is not usually considered a crime of moral turpitude, nor a crime of violence. But with enough aggravating factors -- such as if the person was driving a car full of children, was driving recklessly in an area with many pedestrians, actually injured or killed someone, or was high on drugs at the time -- USCIS might find moral turpitude, or be able to use a separate ground of deportability.

Getting Legal Help

If you've been arrested for a DUI, or have got even one DUI conviction on your record, and have a green card, see an attorney. If you're still in criminal court proceedings, you need to make sure that the way that your crime is defined, and what type of additional charges you plead to or sentence you receive, will have the least impact on your immigration status.

If you're already in removal proceedings, you'll absolutely need a lawyer's help to plan a defense strategy and prepare you and any witnesses to testify on your behalf.

The lawyer can, assuming you aren't removed, also help you start planning your application for U.S. citizenship -- at which time you'll need to prove your good moral character (which having a DUI on record can make more difficult).