Criminal Law & Immigration Law, - Research Paper Example

In addition, whereas criminal law is under the powers of the states, immigration law is normally under the powers of the federal administration. With considerable and constant interactions, hard questions arises, such as, what degree does criminal law impact immigration law? Do their functions in influencing immigration continue to overlap? This paper will critically examine the interaction of criminal law and immigration law. In most cases, the most crucial issue that face noncitizen (undocumented immigrants) defendants charged with committing a crime is whether when convicted and sentenced for the crime, will result in some certain provisions contained in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), that will lead in his deportation from the US.

Usually noncitizen defendants do not understand how critical this matter is until it turns out to be too late. The present provisions of immigration law make the consequences for committing a crime to be very severe. Noncitizens, who are convicted of seemingly minor offences such as theft, can face devastating consequences. The moment they are convicted and sentenced, noncitizens could face such severe consequences such as direct deportation, being permanently barred from returning to the US and a likely indefinite detention by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities, regardless of the duration he has lived in the US, the family ties he has, or if he is legally in the US.

In addition, the most of the noncitizen offenders are not represent during their immigration proceedings. As pointed out by Guild and Minderhoud (2006) many of them are kept in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in the course of their proceedings. When noncitizen commits crime, an aggravated crime he may be deported. As explained by Guild and Minderhoud (2006) the effect of an aggravated crime