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My brother was convicted of extortion 7 years ago. He had the conviction expunged about 2 years ago. He is a permanent resident and needs to renew his Green Card. Will his renewal be denied or can he possibly be deported? His green card expired about 2-3 years ago.
Optional Information: State/Country relating to question: California Already Tried: My brother was convicted of extortion 7 years ago. He had the conviction expunged about 2 years ago. He is a permanent resident and needs to renew his green card. Will his renewal be denied or can he possibly be deported?
Hello and thank you for the opportunity to assist you. There may be a slight delay between your follow ups and my replies as I am typing out my answer. Please remember that this is general information only, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is formed.Likely, his renewal will be granted without incident. The first thing that is done when someone is taken into custody is that ICE is notified if the Defendant is a greencard holder. Once he is convicted, ICE will then take custody after the sentence is served to place the Defendant into removal proceedings if they feel that his conviction warrants it.In this case, they did not act, which implies that ICE did not consider his conviction major enough for removal. If they did not act then while he was in custody, then they are even less likely to act now. So while there is always a risk, frankly speaking, it is unlikely (especially because his conviction has now been expunged).I hope this finds you well. Please click Reply to Expert to keep talking, or rate my answer when we are finished. Kindly rate my answer as one of the top three faces because this is how I get credit for my time with you. Otherwise, reply to chat more until we are finished and you are ready to rate. I work very hard to formulate an informative answer for you; please reciprocate my good faith. (You may always ask follow ups free after rating.)
Experience: Private practice in several areas, including immigration
His conviction was just for the extortion, nothing else. Is this considered a removable offense? What's the worst possible outcome?
Hello Mike,This gets complicated. Allow me to expand on the reason why I said that there may be a "risk."-his conviction is one that is defined as "moral turpitude." This makes him deportable under INA Section 212(a).-ICE only began doing checks on criminal defendants about 3-4 years ago. So perhaps ICE does not know about him.-a conviction vacated on procedural grounds still counts as a conviction for Immigration purposes. So his conviction should have been overturned on him being innocent of the action, and not on procedural grounds, for the expungement to stick for immigration purposes.-so in worst case scenario, once he renews, they will catch his criminal matter and may place him into removal proceedings.As you can tell, it is risky. Of course, he can always choose not to renew his greencard - doing so will not void his greencard status, but without a valid greencard, it is impossible to work, lease an apartment often, etc.I am afraid that there is no immediate solution here.