I.    ADMISSION TO THE UNITED STATES

 A.      The Meaning of "Admission"

 B.      Admission vs. Entry

 C.      Re-Entry of Permanent Residents

II.   GROUNDS OF INADMISSIBILITY

 A.      Health-Related Grounds

 B.      Criminal and Related Grounds

(a)     Crimes of Moral Turpitude

   (i)      Exceptions And Waivers of the Criminal Grounds

 C.      Security and Related Grounds

 D.      Inadmissibility for Violations of Immigration Law or Procedure

(a)     Illegal Entrants and Immigration Violators

(b)     Previous Removal and Unlawful Presence

 E.      The Public Charge Ground

 F.      Other Grounds of Inadmissibility

(a)     Labor Certification

(b)     Documentation Requirements

(c)     Persons Ineligible for Citizenship

(d)     Miscellaneous

 G.      False claim to U.S. Citizenship

III.  REMOVAL FROM THE UNITED STATES

  A.      General Considerations

IV. GROUNDS FOR REMOVAL (DEPORTABILITY)

A.      Inadmissibility at Entry and Status Violations

B.      Criminal Grounds

(a)     Crimes of Moral Turpitude

(b)     Aggravated Felonies

(c)     Other Criminal Grounds

   (i)      Avoiding the Immigration Consequences of Crimes

C.      Registration Requirements

D.      National Security Grounds

E.      Other Removal Grounds

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II.  GROUNDS OF INADMISSIBILITY 

At least in theory, immigration law requires a higher standard of personal conduct for individuals who wish to be admitted to the United States than for persons who have already been properly admitted and have committed some offense for which they may be subject to removal. Individuals who have been admitted and lived in the United States ordinarily have jobs, family, friends, and other significant ties to this country -- ties which should not be disrupted without a showing of very unacceptable conduct. Persons seeking admission can be subject to more stringent requirements because they usually do not have such ties. In practice, however, some of the grounds for removal, especially the "aggravated felony" grounds (see infra § 8-2.2(b)), are more stringent than the grounds of inadmissibility. It is possible for a non-citizen who is lawfully resident in the United States to be removed for committing a relatively minor crime that would not be a bar to admission.

The grounds of inadmissibility are listed in section 212 of the INA. When a non-citizen applies for a visa to travel to the U.S., the consular officer ordinarily considers whether any of these grounds apply, but a finding that none do is not conclusive. Immigration officers make an independent determination of a non-citizen's admissibility when he or she arrives at a port of entry.

Before the 1990 Act, the INA listed 34 classes of inadmissibility (formerly "exclusion"). The 1990 Act updated what was previously considered an unnecessarily complex classification scheme. Until the 1990 changes, even the most archaic classes remained intact; e.g., inadmissibility of "paupers, professional beggars, or vagrants" as one class and homosexuals as another. The 1990 Act eliminated both classes. In 1996, IIRIRA added a number of new grounds of inadmissibility and made some of the existing grounds more stringent. Congress has made additional updates to this section since 1996, most notably in the USA Patriot Act of 2001, which extended the inadmissibility grounds related to terrorism and made persons who have engaged in money laundering inadmissible. Section 212(a) contains ten general categories of inadmissibility grounds: health-related grounds; criminal and related grounds; security and related grounds; public charge proscription; labor certification requirements and qualifications for certain immigrants; illegal entrants and immigration violators proscription; documentation requirements; ineligibility for citizenship; previous unlawful presence; and miscellaneous.

Many of the grounds of inadmissibility can be waived in individual cases. For example, INA § 212(d)(3) allows the Secretary for Homeland Security to waive any of the grounds, except for a few security-related provisions, for nonimmigrants applying for a visa or seeking admission. Waivers for immigrants are more limited.

A.  Health-Related Grounds

Section 212(a) begins with grounds of inadmissibility based on physical or mental health. Individuals who have a "communicable disease of public health significance" are inadmissible, as are those persons with a "physical or mental disorder and behavior associated with the disorder that may pose ... a threat to the property, safety, or welfare of the alien or others." INA § 212(a)(1)(A). Moreover, a drug addict or abuser is inadmissible under this section. INA § 212(a)(1)(A)(iv). Individuals seeking admission as immigrants, including those adjusting status in the U.S., are inadmissible unless they can document that they have received certain vaccines. INA § 212(a)(1)(A)(ii).

The communicable diseases that constitute grounds of inadmissibility include tuberculosis; leprosy; syphilis and other, less common, sexually-transmitted diseases; and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). 42 C.F.R. § 34.2. The inclusion of HIV in this list was controversial. Congress originally declared people testing HIV-positive inadmissible under an appropriations bill rider in 1987. The 1990 Act, however, referred only to "communicable diseases of public health significance" and did not explicitly mention HIV or AIDS. In response, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) promulgated proposed regulations that restricted this class to diseases whose public health significance resulted from their contagious nature. Because AIDS/HIV cannot be spread through casual contact, it was initially removed from the list of grounds of inadmissibility. The HHS proposal generated considerable criticism, particularly from conservatives in Congress and the first Bush administration. Ultimately, Congress amended section 212(a) to make inadmissible any non-citizen "who is determined to have a communicable disease of public health significance, which shall include infection with the etiologic agent for acquired immune deficiency syndrome." INA § 212(a)(1)(I).

INA § 212(g) provides for a waiver of inadmissibility for any non-citizen who has communicable disease of public health significance, including HIV, and who is the spouse, parent, unmarried son or daughter, or the minor unmarried lawfully adopted child of a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. This waiver is also available for persons who are granted permanent residence after being battered by a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse or parent. In addition, the vaccination requirement for persons seeking permanent residence may be waived if a doctor certifies that vaccination would be medically inappropriate, if the immigrant objects on religious grounds, or, in the case of adopted children under the age of eleven, if the adopting parent agrees to have the child vaccinated in the U.S.

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