Drunk Driving Charge is Not a Deportable Offense

On November 9th, 2004, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a 1988 federal law that made “violent crimes” deportable offenses was not intended to apply to impaired driving cases. The case, Leocal v. Ashcroft, 543 U.S. ____ (Case No. 03-583; 11-9-04) held that even a felony offender who had permanent status in the United States (Leocal was from Haiti) could not be sent out of the United States for being an “undesirable” alien.

A word of caution should by mentioned here. The Court only ruled on this set of facts. A death case involving vehicular homicide may be decided differently. Moreover, Congress has the power (if not the inclination) to change the law to add “persons charged with DWI” or such other categorization of impaired driving offenses. Hence, persons who lack full citizenship should not underestimate the possible future consequences of putting a drunken driving conviction on his or her criminal record. 

The Leocal opinion is reproduced below:

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