Safe Havens

Effective Date Issues.  Former INA § 241(a)(2)(C) applied to all convictions, including those occurring prior to November 29, 1990, the effective date of the Immigration Act of 1990.[1262]  This conclusion, however, should be reexamined under INS v. St. Cyr, [1263] since a person could have entered a plea to a firearms offense, prior to November 18, 1988, the date the first firearms deportation ground was enacted, secure in the belief that it did not trigger deportation.  Moreover, a noncitizen could have entered a plea, prior to November 29, 1990, to a firearm offense involving a weapon that was not on the extremely limited list of deportable firearms in effect from 1988 to 1990, secure in the belief it would not trigger deportation.  Under the reasoning of St. Cyr, Congress should not be deemed to wish to disturb the settled expectations of all parties concerning the immigration consequences of a plea of guilty to a minor firearms offense by applying these definitions retroactively to convictions predating the effective date of the amendment, bringing the older offense of conviction within the firearms

deportation ground for the first time.

[1262] Matter of Chow, 20 I. & N. Dec. 647 (BIA 1993), aff’d, Chow v. INS, 12 F.3d 34 (5th Cir. 1993); Lopez-Amaro v. INS, 25 F.3d 986, 988-989 (11th Cir. 1994), cert. denied, 115 S.Ct. 1093 (1995). But see Drax v. Ashcroft, 178 F.Supp.2d 296, 307-308 (E.D.N.Y. 2001) (1994 amendments adding attempt and conspiracy as firearms offenses could not be applied retroactively, under the Supreme Court’s analysis in INS v. St. Cyr).

[1263]  INS v. St. Cyr, 533 U.S. 289, 121 S.Ct. 2271 (2001).