The Effect of State Conviction Relief on Federal Deportation Law

Federal statute requires deportation of any alien drug offender convicted under federal or state law. An offender may have his conviction set aside, however, under federal or state provisions which authorize relief from the penalties and disabilities resulting from a conviction. Use of the relief conferred by these statutes presents the issue of whether the alien remains "convicted" and therefore deportable under federal law. In Kolios v. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and Rehman v. INS, the First and Second Circuits reached apparently conflicting resolutions of this problem. The Kolios and Rehman decisions illustrate the confusion regarding the proper relationship between federal deportation law and state conviction relief statutes that are designed to restore qualifying offenders to a social status free from the penalties attending a conviction. The two decisions; however, do not necessarily conflict and together suggest an underlying policy as to when state statutory relief from drug convictions may forestall the deportation of aliens. The federal nature of deportation combined with the gravity of the consequences require comprehensive federal standards that will produce uniform results throughout the circuits. Consideration of the Kolios and Rehman cases in the context of the purposes of federal deportation and expungement policies produces a consistent analytical framework upon which future deportation decisions may rest.