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California Criminal Law pretty much follows the common law of the country and has a number of crimes that are the domain of the city or county within which the crime was committed. Normal amongst these are infractions such as speeding, parking illegally, causing a nuisance, and so on. These are crimes which do not normally carry a jail sentence and are not really crimes at all but peccadilloes for which one gets a rap on the knuckles and moves on.

Then there are misdemeanours which are somewhat more serious but are in fact still not serious crimes. The penalties for these may include incarceration for up to a year and a large fine. Included here is petty theft, shoplifting of a value less than $300, brawling and public lewdness, prostitution tends to fall into this category.

Felonies carry far more severe penalties and the crimes include Murder, Rape, Drug crimes.

Many Felonies also become Federal crimes.

For an immigrant a charge against you for anything beyond an infraction has to be regarded as serious. If you are working with a permit prior to getting a Green Card, or are a Green Card holder awaiting citizenship hearings then all criminal records are examined and can adversely affect your immigrant status.

There are 2 very important provisions of the law to consider.

The first are the so called aggravated felonies. These are crimes which include any dealing in drugs, be it Marijuana or harder drugs such as cocaine or Heroin, even designer drugs such as Ecstasy or Rohypnol are considered in a serious light. Also included is murder, violence, Human Trafficking or offences to do with trading in arms and explosives.

A conviction under any one of these crimes will lead to an automatic suspension of you immigrant status followed by deportation once you have served your sentence.

But be careful. The immigration law has the ability to lump a couple of offenses together to ensure that the maximum possible penalty will exceed 1 year and then your misdemeanour suddenly becomes aggravated felony and deportation becomes a likelihood. For example if you are charged with shoplifting and you have been caught with a T-shirt worth $5.00 and the store presses charges according to their published policy you have committed a petty theft and the maximum penalty is 6 months. However the DA decides that he is also going to charge you with commercial theft which, when added to the petty theft gives you a potential maximum penalty of over 1 year then suddenly you immigration status is looking bleak as you are now guilty of an aggravated felony.

If this has happened to you then you should immediately contact a Criminal Lawyer in Los Angeles who specializes in defending immigrants who have been charged with crimes.

If you have already been convicted of a crime or have been advised to plead guilty then it is still worth contacting him as he is very capable of filing a Motion to Vacate Judgment in CA due to poor advise or flawed procedures in your arraignment and trial.