Will Justin Bieber Face Deportation?

Justin Bieber's latest claim to fame involving his run-in with the law may end up costing him more than he ever bargained for - a removal from the United States. But it is too early to tell.

The wishes of over 225,000 people who have signed the petition to deport Justin Bieber could come true, depending on the outcome of Bieber's criminal case. (By the way, less than 1,000 people as of this writing have signed the petition to keep Justin Bieber in the United States).

Under immigration law, certain crimes result in very serious immigration consequences, including removal from the United States. On top of that, the distinctions between removable and non-removable crimes do not always seem logical. For example, an assault could be an "aggravated felony" under immigration law even when a state law calls is a misdemeanor. This is because in the immigration law, the length of sentence makes a difference. Similarly, a theft crime can have less or more serious immigration results depending on the sentence imposed. Often times, you can take two cases side by side and it will be clear to you which crime is more serious - yet the person with more serious crime can have an effective lawyer who negotiates the sentence down so as not to trigger "aggravated felony" conviction while another with less serious conviction cannot afford a lawyer who could help (a good example is the case of Mr. Pacheco whose misdemeanor crime of stealing cigarettes and some Tylenol was classified as aggravated felony because he was sentenced to more than 1 year in prison for it). I am sure Justin Bieber's legal team will make sure that he avoids anything even close to an aggravated felony.

The criminal charges that could really trouble Justin Bieber are those related to drugs. The news sources report that Mr. Bieber tested positive for marijuana and prescription drugs.  Immigration law comes down hard on drug crimes. The law makes an exception for single(!) possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana, but most other drug convictions are likely to result in deportation.

Then there is the problem with having two or more crimes for Justin Bieber - another ground of removability when those crimes involve moral turpitude.

If Justin Bieber wants to avoid deportation, he should have an expert immigration lawyer on his legal team as well as a very good criminal attorney. Until his criminal cases play out though, we will have to wait on the future of his immigration status in the United States. Stay tuned!

President Obama on Immigration in His State of the Union Speech

In his State of the Union speech last night, President Obama called for immigration reform, urging Congress to "fix our broken immigration system." He pointed out that immigration reform would grow our economy and shrink our deficits by about $1 trillion in the next two decades - two issues that have been of concern for most of his presidency so far. His speech, however, did not offer any specific solutions.

A meaningful immigration reform will require bipartisan support - something that has eluded the Congress so far. A new House Republican proposal offers some solutions but keeps many without an option to seek permanent residency or citizenship in the future. This is unlike the Senate bill proposed in June 2013, which offers path to citizenship to many currently undocumented immigrants.

Will 2014 by the year when we finally see a fix for our broken immigration system and will it offer meaningful solution that will keep families together and keep our economy going? We certainly hope so.