Herbert A. Weiss Immigration Law Blog on Lawyers.com

Mention the word “deportation” to a foreigner residing in our midst and you could witness a meltdown.  Deportation from the United States incites such reactions even among those foreign nationals who reside here lawfully.  Knowing how much they have to lose by banishment from our shores, it is not surprising that that those with green cards fear such a fate possibly even more than undocumented aliens.   In Ng Fung Ho v. White, expulsion from the U.S. was aptly described by the eminent Supreme Court jurist, Louis Brandeis, as something that could deprive an individual of “all that makes life worth living.”  How true when one considers deportation’s potential to separate an individual from home and family.

It might surprise some that the risk of deportation from the U.S. is virtually as old as our nation itself.  The first law allowing for the deportation of foreign nationals was the Alien Friends Act (1798), passed during the administration of our second president, John Adams.  It authorized the president to deport any resident alien deemed “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.”  The Alien Enemies Act, also adopted in 1798, authorized the president to apprehend and deport resident aliens if their home countries were at war with the United States.  At the time, despite their considerable help to us in the American Revolution, there was considerable fear that we would be dragged into a war with France which was impressing U.S. sailors into the French navy.

Both the Alien Friends Act and the Alien Enemies Act were a part of four separate laws that have commonly been referred to as the Alien and Sedition Acts.  The Sedition Act (1798) made it a crime to publish “false, scandalous, and malicious” writing against the government or its officials and was the source of great bitterness and denunciation by those, such as Vice President Thomas Jefferson, who felt that the law violated the right of free speech.  The very controversial Sedition Act expired on March 3, 1801 and its constitutionality was never tested in The Supreme Court although the Court in several decisions expressed its distaste for the law.

The grounds for deportation from the United States are enumerated today in Section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.  As would be expected, the statute is complex and lengthy, making deportable, among others, those who have committed certain criminal offenses, those engaged in document fraud, those engaged in marriage fraud, those engaged in terrorist activities, and those who participated in Nazi persecution, genocide, or the commission of any act of torture or extrajudicial killing.  Deportable aliens need to understand, however, that U.S. immigration law, although often tough,  does provide relief and even a path to green card status through processes such as adjustment of status and cancellation of removal.  I hope to discuss these processes and others that can lead to green card status for deportable aliens in future articles.  Stay tuned.