Legal Question in Criminal Law in Florida

Re: deportation in federal case

Hello: I just saw your question. There are several issues here and I have to leave my office right now. Also, I would have several questions that need answers before I could give a specific answer. I can give a few general points from the cases I have handled.

Basically, INS can file a deportation action where the person has two crimes of moral turpitude or where a felony has a sentence with a jail term of more than one year. I have not read that statute, but I was told by an immigration atty. in a couple of cases that our clients needed to have the jail time reduced to under 365 days and that would stop the deportation case. I have become involved in theses cases when the person had deportation action brought and the immig. atty. hired my office to go into the criminal case (that was already disposed of) and file a motion to set aside the plea and sentence. We base our motion on the allegation that the judge did not advise the client of the consequences of this plea on his or her immigration status. We order the transcripts first to make sure the person was not properly advised.

'hope this helps. Tom Rosenblum