I shudder to think of the many cases I saw through the 80s and 90s in which permanent resident aliens entered guilty pleas and received dispositions of their cases that set them up for eventual deportation.  No one understood this would be the result, since the law changed years later and suddenly people who were not deemed deportable became eligible for deportation.  Now that all non-citizens who commit a felony are deemed instantly deportable there are tens of thousands of such people just waiting for the hammer to drop.  

In Virginia pretty much any crime involving money or property in the amount of over $200 is a felony.  Moreover, most misdemeanors are punishable by up to 12 months in jail.  In the late 90s immigration attorneys began alerting criminal lawyers to the fact that if their clients entered guilty pleas and received 12 months or more in jail - even if all of it was all suspended - they would be fast-tracked for deportation.  Accordingly, judges began entering orders reflecting anywhere between 180 and 364 days of either suspended incarceration or probation.  This took many of the cases out of the fast track.  The problem is that many attorneys are still unaware of the problem; moreover, some judges and prosecutors feel that asking for a sentence calculated to avoid immigration consequences is akin to giving a criminal special treatment.    

What probably happened with this poor woman is she made a bad decision and pleaded guilty and probably received all suspended time of anywhere from a year to two or three years.  She may even have had an SIS - suspended imposition of sentence - at the end of which the case would have been dismissed.  Current immigration rules deem an SIS to be exactly the same as conviction.

We need more than just pardons.  We need a revisiting of the immigration laws to deal with this ridiculous inequity and harsh result of even fairly minor crimes committed by people who have otherwise lived within the law.  It's crazy to have to tell some 18 year old legal immigrant that her sudden decision to shoplift a dress or a couple of DVDs may have doomed her to deportation.  It's horrible having to see the shock on the faces of the parents of these young people, or on the faces of the family members of some depressed individual who might have caved in to a momentary temptation to do wrong and therefore set in motion a process which may end up in the destruction of that person's family.    

they tell us Public Defenders down here in Florida that for purposes of immigration law, even suspended sentences count as sentences, and even withholds of adjudication count as convictions.  Moreover, there are other categories of "deportable" offenses.  

Certainly, not everyone is quite as sympathetic as this lady, but it breaks my heart to see young Hispanic families broken apart virtually every week, when one member gets an ICE hold for committing a misdemeanor.

Normally, I'm a happy camper if I can walk a client out of a courtroom with a suspended imposition of sentence because it means the case will be dismissed some day and there'll never be a conviction.  Now, the only way to avoid having it count as a conviction is if I can get the prosecutor to agree simply to continue the case generally, without any conditions or findings or anything, but as a simple continuance, to be dismissed at an agreed time.  Lots of luck with that.  Most prosecutors refuse this request because they interpret it as discrimination against American citizens who would not be eligible for the same treatment under the same circumstances.  

For many years I was part of the local shoplifting diversion program, which is designed to divert juvenile shoplifters from reoffending by teaching them all the reasons why shoplifting is a bad idea.  Representatives of the prosecutor's office, the defense bar, the probation office, and store security appear and give talks from their perspectives.  During my talks I'd ask people to raise their hands if they were NOT citizens.  Needless to say, this caused consternation.  I then told them it was okay if they didn't raise their hands for me, but that if they came into the custody of the police they wouldn't need to raise their hands.  Their status would come to light soon enough.  I then explained in vivid detail all the many ways these young people and their parents could come to ICE's attention and get deported.  You could see the color drain out of the parents' faces and I saw more than one parent smack a kid on the arm or leg and start a hoarse, whispered, agitated conversation.  I can only hope that my little talks spared some of these people the agony this young woman is going through, but it's a drop in the bucket.  We'll be seeing many such cases in coming years unless something is done to mitigate the harshness of the current law.

have their own, permanently-staffed office inside the Palm Beach County jail.  Pretty much any undocumented immigrant who has to spend a night in jail for any reason, whether or not justified, is screwed.

Funny, I never used to get too worked up about immigration, but of all the sad dramas that play out in criminal court, seeing what happens to immigrants really depresses me the most.