Can You Get Deported If You Have a Green Card?

Yes, you can be deported even if you have a green card. Lawful permanent resident status protects you far more than a visa does, but it is not citizenship, and federal immigration law lists specific criminal convictions, fraud findings, and other violations that make a green card holder removable. Some of those grounds allow strong defenses. Others, particularly an aggravated felony conviction, leave almost none.

What Can Make a Green Card Holder Deportable

The Immigration and Nationality Act sorts removable conduct into criminal and non-criminal categories, and the category matters as much as the conduct itself, because it controls which defenses you can raise later.¹

Aggravated Felonies

An aggravated felony conviction at any point after admission makes a permanent resident deportable with almost no available defenses. The label is misleading. The federal immigration definition covers serious offenses like murder, rape, sexual abuse of a minor, and drug trafficking, but it also sweeps in theft or burglary with a sentence of at least one year, fraud offenses involving losses over $10,000, and money laundering above that same threshold.²

The trap sits in that one-year threshold. Suspended sentences count. A state-court misdemeanor shoplifting conviction with a one-year suspended sentence, where the defendant serves no time at all, can still qualify as an aggravated felony for immigration purposes.³ The gap between how criminal courts and immigration courts read the same conviction is the single biggest hazard for permanent residents in the criminal system.

Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude

Crimes involving moral turpitude include offenses involving fraud, dishonesty, or conduct that shocks the conscience: forgery, theft by deception, assault with intent to cause serious harm, some sex offenses. A green card holder is deportable for a single crime involving moral turpitude only if it was committed within five years of admission and carries a potential sentence of one year or more. Two or more convictions for such crimes at any point after admission make you deportable regardless of when they occurred, as long as they didn’t arise from a single incident.¹

Drugs, Firearms, and Domestic Violence

Almost any controlled substance conviction is deportable. The one narrow exception is a single offense for personal possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana. Being a drug abuser or addict is an independent ground for deportation, even without a conviction. Firearms offenses carry the same weight: purchasing, selling, possessing, or carrying a firearm or destructive device in violation of any law, at any time after admission, is deportable. So are convictions for domestic violence, stalking, child abuse, or child neglect.¹

Fraud, Marriage Fraud, and Abandonment

You don’t need a criminal record to lose your green card. Obtaining the card through fraud or misrepresentation, including lying on immigration applications or concealing material facts, is a deportation ground. Marriage fraud is particularly harsh: if a marriage used to obtain a green card ends within two years, the government presumes it was fraudulent and the burden shifts to the green card holder to prove it was real. A marriage fraud finding also imposes a permanent bar on any future immigration petition filed for that person, even one based on a later, genuine marriage.¹

A green card is also a commitment to live in the United States. Leaving the country for more than a year without a re-entry permit creates a presumption that you’ve abandoned permanent resident status.⁴ Even shorter trips can raise questions if they’re frequent, or if you file taxes as a nonresident or keep your primary home abroad.

Voting and False Claims to Citizenship

Voting in any federal, state, or local election as a non-citizen is a deportable offense, as is falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to obtain any benefit, including registering to vote. These grounds have no time limit and only narrow statutory exceptions for people who reasonably believed they were citizens.⁵ A public charge ground also exists on paper for green card holders who become primarily dependent on government cash assistance within five years of entry, but it’s rarely used and doesn’t reach programs like SNAP or Medicaid.¹

Why Travel Abroad Amplifies the Risk

International travel is where quiet immigration problems turn into active ones. Every re-entry runs through inspection, and under six specific conditions, a returning permanent resident is treated as if applying for admission all over again rather than simply coming home.⁶ Those conditions are abandonment of residency, an absence of more than 180 continuous days, illegal activity abroad, leaving with removal or extradition proceedings pending, having committed certain crimes that make you inadmissible, and attempting entry at an unauthorized time or place.

Once you’re treated as an applicant for admission, the broader inadmissibility grounds kick in, not just the narrower deportability grounds that apply to residents already inside the country. A conviction that would not have triggered removal while you stayed put can block your re-entry once you leave and come back. If you have any criminal history, get legal advice before booking international travel.

How Removal Actually Works

Deportation is a legal process, not a summary action. It begins with a Notice to Appear, the charging document that lists the factual allegations and the legal grounds the government is relying on.⁷ The Notice to Appear is filed with an immigration court, which is part of the Department of Justice rather than the ordinary federal court system.⁸

An immigration judge decides the case. You have the right to hire an attorney at your own expense, examine the evidence, present your own evidence and witnesses, and cross-examine the government’s witnesses. If the judge orders removal, you must be advised of your right to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, and from there to a federal circuit court.⁹

Some green card holders are detained during the process; others are released on bond. Aggravated felonies, drug offenses, firearms offenses, and multiple crimes involving moral turpitude trigger mandatory detention with no right to a standard bond hearing. Everyone else can ask an immigration judge to set bond, with a statutory minimum of $1,500.

Defenses That Can Stop Deportation

Being placed in removal proceedings does not mean you will be deported. Several forms of relief exist, and eligibility turns on your criminal record and how long you’ve held your green card.

Cancellation of Removal

Cancellation of removal is the strongest defense available to most green card holders. Three requirements apply: at least five years as a lawful permanent resident, at least seven years of continuous residence in the United States after admission in any status, and no aggravated felony conviction.¹⁰ If the immigration judge grants it, your permanent resident status is restored as though removal proceedings never happened.

The aggravated felony bar is absolute. This is why the classification of a conviction, and every plea decision that shapes it, carries such weight.

Voluntary Departure

When winning outright is unlikely, voluntary departure can be the better outcome. You leave the country on your own within a set window instead of receiving a formal removal order, which avoids the ten-year or longer re-entry bar and preserves more options for lawful return later.¹¹ To qualify after a hearing has concluded, you need at least one year of physical presence in the U.S. before the Notice to Appear, five years of good moral character, a bond of at least $500, and the means and intention to leave. Aggravated felony convictions disqualify you. Missing the departure date brings fines and penalties that make future relief much harder.

Withholding of Removal and Convention Against Torture Protection

Green card holders who fear persecution or torture in their home countries may apply for withholding of removal or protection under the Convention Against Torture. Withholding of removal is available even to those with aggravated felony convictions, but the standard is high: you have to show it is more likely than not that you’d face persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Convention Against Torture protection requires showing you would likely be tortured with the government’s consent or acquiescence.

How to Protect Your Green Card

Talk to an Immigration Attorney Before Any Criminal Plea

This is the most important step in this article. If you are a green card holder who has been arrested or charged with any crime, consult an immigration attorney before accepting a plea or going to trial. The Supreme Court held in Padilla v. Kentucky that criminal defense attorneys are constitutionally required to advise noncitizen clients about the deportation risk of a guilty plea.¹² Even so, many criminal lawyers do not know precisely which plea outcomes trigger which immigration consequences.

An immigration attorney can work alongside your criminal lawyer to negotiate a plea that resolves the case without triggering removal. The difference between a 364-day sentence and a 365-day sentence can be the difference between keeping and losing your green card, because that one-year line is what turns a theft or assault conviction into an aggravated felony. If you have already been convicted, ask about post-conviction relief, including a motion to vacate.

Plan International Travel Carefully

If you need to be outside the United States for more than a year, apply for a re-entry permit before you leave by filing Form I-131 with USCIS.⁴ The filing fee is $630 as of 2026.¹³ A re-entry permit is generally valid for two years, though it drops to one year if you have been outside the U.S. for more than four of the last five years.¹⁴ The permit doesn’t guarantee re-entry, but it evidences that you didn’t intend to abandon residency. Keep other ties strong as well: file taxes as a resident, maintain a U.S. address, and keep U.S. bank accounts open.

Naturalize as Soon as You’re Eligible

U.S. citizenship is the only real shield against deportation. Once naturalized, you cannot be deported except in the rare case where fraud in the naturalization application itself is discovered. Most green card holders become eligible after five years as a permanent resident, provided they have been physically present in the U.S. for at least 30 months during that period and have maintained continuous residence.¹⁵ If you’re eligible and your record is clean, don’t wait.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1227 – Deportable Aliens
2
Legal Information Institute. 8 USC 1101(a)(43) – Aggravated Felony
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Permanent Bars to Good Moral Character
4
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Can You Get Deported if You Have a Green Card?
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Good Moral Character, Unlawful Voting, and False Claim to U.S. Citizenship in the Naturalization Context
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1101 – Definitions
7
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Issuance of Notices to Appear in Cases Involving Inadmissible and Deportable Aliens
8
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. DHS Form I-862 Notice to Appear
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1229a – Removal Proceedings
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1229b – Cancellation of Removal; Adjustment of Status
11
Executive Office for Immigration Review. Information on Voluntary Departure
12
Justia US Supreme Court. Padilla v Kentucky, 559 US 356 (2010)
13
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. G-1055 Fee Schedule
14
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instructions for Form I-131
15
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I Am a Lawful Permanent Resident of 5 Years