If a lawful permanent residence has committed or has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of at least 1 year for commission of the following deportable offenses, the lawful permanent resident must be taken into custody and held without bond (the LPT may be eligible for a bond if the LPT was convicted, but not sentenced to jail):

  • An aggravated felony;
  • A crime involving moral turpitude committed within 5 years of admission with maximum possible sentence of 1 year or more (triggers mandatory detention only if sentence is actually 1 year or more);
  • Two or more crimes involving moral turpitude at any time after the LPR’s admission, not arising out of a single scheme of criminal misconduct, regardless of whether confined therefor and regardless of whether the convictions were in a single trial;
  • A controlled substance offense (other than a single offense involving possession for one’s own use of thirty grams of less of marijuana);
  • Drug abusers and addicts;
  • Certain firearms offenses;
  • High speed flight from an immigration inspection point;
  • Failure to register as a sex offender;
  • Miscellaneous national security-related offenses (sabotage, sedition, espionage, treason, etc.), for which a term of imprisonment of five or more years may be imposed.

The following convictions render a lawful permanent resident inadmissible as well as are subject to mandatory detention by the immigration authorities:

  • Conviction or sufficient admission of a crime involving moral turpitude subject to a juvenile offense and petty offense exceptions;
  • Any controlled substance offense conviction or violation of a law relating to a controlled substance (no exceptions);
  • Any two or more criminal offenses with aggregate sentence of over 5 years;
  • “Reason to believe” drug trafficking;
  • Prostitution and commercialized vice.
  • Certain aliens involved in serious criminal activity who assert immunity to prosecution
  • Foreign officials who engaged in particularly severe violations of religious freedoms
  • Human trafficking
  • Money laundering
  • Terrorism grounds