Deportation of Permanent Residents

Wow!

take care, are you being sarcastic when you say "they'll have a house by then,"? I don't think it's funny - buying a house in the U.S. may take even more than five years (the time period a green card holder should wait before becoming an USC) it's not something that one can accomplish in a couple of months...

winny, I guess take care..., is sarcastic in that that s/he is saying that despite the desire of Americans to see aliens poor and scapegoated as criminals, they are well able to be succesful and even buy houses in relatively short periods of time compared to Americans who may have lived their entire lives here and still pay rent for appartments.

All of you poor illegal immigrants are so mistreated. You think you all deserve a second chance when you break the law. If you had a second chance, then you'd only want a third. As far as standards go, you forget that you are not citizens, but you still think you are entitled to equal treatment. You compare your crimes to Americans. You compare your circumstances to Americans. You compare your poverty to Americans. And you blame Americans for not treating you like Americans -- BUT YOU'RE NOT!

You don't have a clue about a country, and this thread is a good example. You have a GC holder who committed a crime and then he or she wants to know if the crime is a serious enough crime!! Then you all whine that Americans get breaks and you don't!!

Well, Americans do hold certain OTHER AMERICANS to higher standards and there is no reason why we shouldn't hold immigrants to reasonable standards! A Judge in a court of law cannot even have the APPEARANCE of impropriety (a wrongdoing proven or not) or he loses his job! There are many other examples I guarantee you know nothing about, so every pitiful comment here on behalf of the shoplifter has no factual basis whatsoever!

Blah, blah, blah,

actually a Supreme Court decision holds that a qualifying alien in the naturalization process has to prove that his/her standards are that of the general and average "accepted moral standards" of its time.

The way the laws are written at this time, require an unlawfully "hollier than the average" moral standard from a naturalizing alien....

Exactly, if these green card holders will have even houses already bought by the time they apply for citizenship they will be deemed to have set, and actually met, higher standards for themselves than Americans.

We're not talking about GC holders. We're talking about illegal aliens who've committed crimes but want to be welcomed as legal immigrants and treated just like citizens (naturalized or otherwise) in the U.S. If a GC holder buys a house, it would be inherently considered that they did it legally and led those "standard" lives lawfully, in which case they've earned the rights they seek without a free ride.

I know illegal aliens who have actually bought their houses by getting an American citizen as a cosigner sign the paperwork with the bank.

Okay I read all these and would like to say that a permanent resident (or even an illegal alien for that matter) will NOT be deported just for having a misdemeanor shoplifting conviction. Definitely.

It will depend on the state, the charges, and the penalty. Shoplifting is theft and if Winona Ryder was an immigrant legal or illegal, she would be deported right now. To answer the question, you can't say an exact yes or no.

Winona Ryder was convicted on a felony charge (she stupidly stole $5,500 in clothes,) not a misdemeanor (when you steal up to $300 - $500.)

what if you worked at this place? what if they accused you and called the police, and you hire an attorney who says to you that the plea of guilty is the best decision (even knowing that you are not a citizen). of course, he says you will come out "clean" after 6months of deferred sentence. escape the worries of trial, escape huge attorney fees, having your heart aching all the time. and knowing what the ina says...

And the thief would be what?

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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - Winona Ryder was sentenced Friday to work with the sick, the blind and babies with AIDS as part of a probationary term for stealing more than $5,500 worth of high-fashion merchandise from a Saks Fifth Avenue store.

"If you steal again you will go to jail," Superior Court Judge Elden Fox told the actress, who sat watching him solemnly and acknowledged the warning.

The judge ordered her to undergo psychological and drug counseling because "there's going to be a need for you to confront what I consider aberrant behavior."

A probation report, which the defense unsuccessfully sought to keep sealed, cited an investigation that found Ryder had received 37 medications from 20 doctors between January 1996 and December 1998.

He imposed 3 years of probation and said Ryder must appear in court April 7 for a status report.
Ryder also was ordered to perform 480 hours of community service "” 240 hours at the City of Hope medical center, 120 hours at the Foundation for the Junior Blind, and 120 hours at the Caring for Babies With Aids foundation.

She was ordered to pay $3,700 in fines and restitution of $6,355 to Saks. Ryder faced up to 3-years in prison, but prosecutors did not recommend any time behind bars because she had no prior convictions. Her lawyer, Mark Geragos, suggested that Ryder has been punished more than the average person would be because of the public attack on her character.

"I don't think that one crime should trump all the good she's done in her life," Geragos said, citing Ryder's work with American Indian causes and with the Polly Klaas Foundation for missing children. At one point, prosecutor Ann Rundle began an angry speech concerning numerous references to the Klaas Foundation. Mark Klaas has supported Ryder, who donated a reward after his 12-year-old daughter was kidnapped from her Petaluma home and slain in 1993.

"What's offensive to me is to trot out the body of a dead child," the prosecutor began. "I've heard this for over a year." Geragos objected loudly and Ryder rose partly from her seat, glaring. The judge admonished Rundle to stick to the shoplifting case. Outside court, Klaas said he was outraged by the reference to his daughter and credited Ryder with an unsolicited act of benevolence. "Winona Ryder may be a double-felon, but she's a double-felon with a heart," he said.

The two-time Academy Award nominee was convicted last month of felony grand theft and vandalism for her infamous Dec. 12, 2001, shopping trip to the Beverly Hills store. Ryder had numerous prescription drugs in her possession when she was arrested. One drug count was filed but it was eventually dropped when a doctor said he had prescribed it. The probation report revealed she also had a syringe in her purse. "She had more medication in her purse than would be given to a person with a terminal disease," Rundle said.

Geragos responded that Ryder had "a pain-management problem" for some time. He angrily accused the district attorney's office of "doing everything they could to destroy this woman" and said he had tried repeatedly to settle the case without a trial. During the trial, jurors were shown videotapes of Ryder wandering through the store's designer boutiques and taking a large number of items into dressing rooms.

Security staff testified that after Ryder was caught, she claimed a director had told her to shoplift to prepare for a movie role. Ryder, who began her film career as a teenager in 1986, earned Academy Award nominations for "Little Women" and "The Age of Innocence." She also starred in the movie "Girl, Interrupted."

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...inona_ryder_17



Now, imagine an alien in the place of Winona Ryder: s/he would have definitely sent to jail at least for a couple of months. But what I am complaining about? Perhaps even a plain 'ole American would have been sent to.