Criminal Statutes with Immigration Consequences

A criminal defense attorney can win the criminal case entirely — charges dropped, probation instead of jail, a favorable plea — and the client can still end up in removal proceedings because of it. Immigration consequences don't track criminal sentencing outcomes, and most criminal defense lawyers aren't trained to see them coming before a plea is entered, when it's too late to change course.

We built this reference tool to make that risk visible early. It covers all 50 states, not just Florida: search it by state, statute number, offense name, or the immigration consequence you're trying to rule in or out — aggravated felony, crime of violence, crime involving moral turpitude, a controlled-substance ground, a firearms removal ground, a domestic-violence or child-abuse ground, or a statute a court has held does not categorically trigger removal.

Who This Is For

• Criminal defense attorneys — anywhere in the country — screening a noncitizen client's charge before advising on a plea, so you know when to loop in immigration counsel before the plea colloquy — not after sentencing.
• Noncitizens (and their families) who already have a pending charge or a past conviction and want to understand, in plain terms, what's actually at stake.

Why the Categorical Approach Matters

Whether a conviction carries a given immigration consequence is almost never answered by the statute's label alone, and the controlling law is the law of the circuit where the immigration case arises — the same conduct can be classified differently in different circuits. Courts apply the categorical approach: they look to the elements of the state statute, not the person's actual conduct, and presume the conviction rested on the least culpable act the statute criminalizes. A state offense only matches a federal immigration category if its elements are the same as, or narrower than, that federal category.

Where a statute is divisible — it lists alternative elements creating separate crimes, some that qualify and some that don't — courts apply the modified categorical approach and look at the actual record of conviction: the charging document, plea colloquy, and judgment. A statute that only lists alternative means of committing one offense is indivisible, and that record-of-conviction review isn't available. This is why the same statute can show up more than once in the tool below, with opposite outcomes depending on which immigration ground is at issue, or why a classification can turn on exactly how a charging document was worded.

What's in the Tool

Once you're through the short form below, you'll be able to search and filter, by state and by consequence:

• Part I — eight core offense categories across all 50 states: controlled-substance offenses, theft and larceny, fraud and forgery, crimes of violence (assault, battery, robbery), burglary, domestic violence/protection-order violations/child abuse, firearms offenses, and DUI/DWI — including why the same Florida felon-in-possession conviction is an aggravated felony under one INA ground and not a removable offense at all under another, and why simple possession of cocaine and simple possession of marijuana land on opposite sides of the controlled-substance removal ground.
• Part II — sixteen additional federal grounds that apply regardless of state: sexual abuse of a minor, child pornography, failure to register as a sex offender, stalking, money laundering, tax offenses, RICO and gambling, commercial bribery/counterfeiting/forgery, obstruction of justice, failure to appear, ransom/alien smuggling/document fraud, prostitution, trafficking, terrorism and material support, high-speed flight from a checkpoint, and the "particularly serious crime" bar to asylum and withholding.

Each entry names the controlling authority, since that's the binding law wherever the case arises. Coverage is uneven by design — it captures the leading authority located for each state and category, not every state's every offense — and a handful of states currently have little or no on-point authority surfaced; those need individual research against the controlling circuit's framework.

Talk to our crimmigration attorney before a plea is entered, not after. Contact us online or call (656) 236-0205.