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Law and the Border
We still see situations where a driver is refused entry to the US and told he needs a waiver, when in fact he is perfectly admissible to the US without a waiver.
Most of the time, this occurs because the driver has not anticipated a full review of his past, and does not have the correct paperwork with him to prove his criminal conviction record. The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer is guided only by the information contained in the computer, which may be incomplete or in summary form.
For example, the record may contain evidence of a conviction for "assault." Does that mean simple assault, sexual assault, assault with a weapon, or some other kind of assault? The CBP officer will refuse admission to the driver if there is any doubt about the nature of the offense. Sometimes a person is charged with more than one offense, and those charges are dismissed or reduced at the time of disposition. The computer entry may refer to the original charges, not the disposition.
A driver must be able to provide complete evidence of the nature of his conviction, and the driver needs to understand the immigration rules regarding "crimes of moral turpitude" and the "petty offense" exception.
Under the immigration law system, crimes are considered to be either "crimes of moral turpitude" (CIMT), or not....