Spanish residents face significant additional challenges when charged with a crime in Colorado, including driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while ability impaired (DWAI).
The potential penalties for a DUI arrest or conviction depend in part on your immigration status, whether you are undocumented or a legal resident, and your prior criminal record. Our experienced DUI defense attorney always advises clients to fight these charges. But that is particularly true for the more than 1.1 Hispanic residents who call Colorado home.
Undocumented immigrants face the most serious consequences. In many cases, they will be charged with driving without a license, in addition to the drunk-driving offense. These defendants are at highest risk of immigration detention and court proceedings that could result in deportation. ICE prioritizes deporting those with criminal records and targets for deportation proceedings more than 80,000 undocumented immigrants with DUI arrests or convictions each year.
Most immigrants are targeted after being reported to ICE by the arresting law enforcement agency. An arrest or conviction entered into a criminal database may also result in a defendant coming to the attention of immigration officials.
Legal residents of the United States may also face additional immigration sanctions for arrest or conviction of a criminal offense, including DUI. This is particularly true for deportable offenses, including aggravated DUI. Such charges may result in loss of your green card and deportation proceedings. Additionally, conviction for an inadmissible offense, may bar you from returning to the U.S. in the event you leave and seek to return.
An initial DUI charge may or may not significantly impact residency status, depending on a number of factors. However, the progressive nature of Colorado’s drunk driving laws make it critical to mount a serious defense. Those with a DUI conviction on their record are much more likely to be targeted and stopped repeatedly by law enforcement.
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Conviction for repeated offenses, or for refusing to take a breathalyzer test, or for driving with a license suspended or revoked, can result in charges as a persistent drunk driving offender, which are much more serious and even more likely to result in action by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Aggravated DUI is considered a deportable offense, even for legal residents, and may be charged in conjunction with reckless driving, for those who test with a BAC over .20, for those charged with drunk driving after a motor vehicle accident, or for those with multiple drunk driving convictions on their record.
Your Brighton or Fort Collins DUI defense attorney must work at each stage of your case to mitigate the charges against you. That’s why it’s critical to always reach out to an experienced Colorado drunk driving defense lawyer whenever you are charged with a crime, but particularly if you are concerned it may impact residency or immigration status. Fighting a charge can make it less likely you will be targeted by ICE, particularly if you are charged with another violation in the future.
Your drunk-driving charge has a higher chance of impacting your residency or immigration status if:
When it comes to being charged with a criminal offense, protecting your residency and immigration status is of vital importance. That makes the best defense, an experienced and aggressive offense. Our Fort Collins DUI Defense Attorney represents clients in Brighton and throughout Adams and Weld counties, as well as Larimer County and the Fort Collins area, including Loveland, Berthound, Estes Park, Johnstown, Timnath, Wellington and Windsor.
Call 970-592-2805 for a free and confidential consultation to discuss your rights.
