Crime and Punishment in American Immigration

As seen in the February issue of the Cincinnati Bar Association Report.

In 1882, the same year that Robert Ford killed the famous outlaw Jesse James, the U.S. Congress passed a new Immigration Act that imposed a 50 cent tax upon immigrants to fund the cost of regulating immigration and gave federal authorities the power to deny entry to "convicts...lunatics and persons likely to become public charges."

On March 31, 2010, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in the case of Padilla v. Kentucky, 599 U.S. ___ (2010), 130 S. Ct. 1473. Mr. Padilla, a lawful permanent resident of the United States for more than 40 years, had served in Vietnam with honor. However, he was charged with transporting marijuana in Kentucky. He claimed that his lawyer had told him that "he did not have to worry about immigration status since he had been in the country so long." 253 S.W. 3d 482, 483 (Ky. 2008.) Padilla claimed that he would not have pleaded guilty to the charges