Matthew J. Ruff Theft Law Blog on Lawyers.com

The crime of shoplifting falls within a category of criminal offenses known as moral turpitude crimes.  These crimes involve acts of dishonesty and are treated very harshly by US immigration authorities when evaluating a citizenship application.  As a Torrance Shoplifting Defense Attorney, I have handled many cases wherein the client was facing the threat of deportation due to a potential shoplifting arrest.  Usually, the federal government gives a person one free shot in criminal convictions for a shoplifting case, this is known as the petty offense exception from exclusion to naturalization.  However, a second case of shoplifting or situations involving a sentence of more than one year in jail could result in deportation and exclusion from naturalization to the United States.