Baseball Player in Danger of Being Deported
By Ajay Choudhary
Many conservatives think that all non-citizens who are convicted of a crime should be deported. A situation involving a member of the Houston Astros might test whether fans of the Astros share this view.
Miguel Tejada, a member of the Houston Astros, is believed to have a Agreen card@ (permanent residence). He apparently is a citizen of the Dominican Republic. The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Henry Waxman, recently announced that he is going to ask the Department of Justice to investigate whether Tejada lied to federal agents who were investigating issues relating to steroids in baseball.
If Tejada is convicted of perjury or obstruction of justice and is sentenced to prison for one year or more, he will be considered, under the immigration laws, to have been convicted of an Aaggravated felony.@ He could then be arrested by the Department of Homeland Security, detained without bond, deported, and permanently banned from the United States.
If Tejada is convicted of perjury or obstruction of justice and is sentenced to less than one year in prison, he could still be deported if his conviction occurs less than five years after he obtained his green card.
Immigration has become an important issue in this year=s presidential election. Tejada=s situation could become part of the debate about whether all non-citizens who are convicted of a crime should be deported.
Ajay Choudhary is an attorney at Coane and Associates, 1900 West Loop South, Suite 820, Houston, Texas 77027. His e-mail address is ajay.choudhary@coane.com and his phone number is (713) 850-0066.