Help protect immigrants from excessively harsh penalties
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Your State House Representative
We have the opportunity this Rhode Island Legislative Session to help eliminate a loophole in our laws that can result in unduly harsh immigration consequences for people charged with minor offenses in Rhode Island!
This bill would make a tiny but influential change to Rhode Island laws: Making the maximum possible prison sentence for a misdemeanor 364 days instead of a year. Under current federal immigration law, an immigrant (including a lawful permanent resident) who is convicted of an offense punishable by a sentence of "a year or more" may be deported, regardless of whether jail time is even served. In Rhode Island, misdemeanors carry a potential sentence of "up to one year." This means that people convicted of some of the most minor crimes risk deportation because of this one day discrepancy.
There are crimes, like domestic violence and gun offenses, that already trigger deportation even if the crime is a misdemeanor under state law. This bill would not affect those existing laws.
Contact your Representatives and urge them to "support" S 2047 and H 7198 by using the form below. The Senate has already passed the bill, and now it needs to pass out of House Judiciary committee and then pass the full House.
Rhode Island is a small state – your influence as a constituent has a lot of weight! Make your voice heard.
Your State House Representative
We have the opportunity this Rhode Island Legislative Session to help eliminate a loophole in our laws that can result in unduly harsh immigration consequences for people charged with minor offenses in Rhode Island!
This bill would make a tiny but influential change to Rhode Island laws: Making the maximum possible prison sentence for a misdemeanor 364 days instead of a year. Under current federal immigration law, an immigrant (including a lawful permanent resident) who is convicted of an offense punishable by a sentence of "a year or more" may be deported, regardless of whether jail time is even served. In Rhode Island, misdemeanors carry a potential sentence of "up to one year." This means that people convicted of some of the most minor crimes risk deportation because of this one day discrepancy.
There are crimes, like domestic violence and gun offenses, that already trigger deportation even if the crime is a misdemeanor under state law. This bill would not affect those existing laws.
Contact your Representatives and urge them to "support" S 2047 and H 7198 by using the form below. The Senate has already passed the bill, and now it needs to pass out of House Judiciary committee and then pass the full House.
Rhode Island is a small state – your influence as a constituent has a lot of weight! Make your voice heard.
Your State House Representative