Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to give you the reality of what happens when a federal conviction collides with DACA status - not the sanitized version immigration websites present, not the clinical legal summaries, but the actual truth about what you're facing right now. Because if your reading this at 2am with a federal case pending and DACA protection that suddenly feels fragile, you need to understand something critical: there are two clocks running against you, and only one of them moves at human speed.
The federal criminal justice system operates on months, sometimes years. Appeals take time. Motions get filed. Due process, however imperfect, at least pretends to give you a fighting chance. But immigration enforcement operates on a completely different timeline - one measured in days and hours. And heres the part that destroys people who dont understand it: ICE doesn't wait for your criminal case to finish. They move while your still fighting. They place detainers while your case is still on appeal. They show up at federal facilities before you've had your day in court. The conviction isn't where you lose everything. It's where a second, faster clock starts running while your criminal case is still being decided.
This is the parallel timeline problem that DACA recipients facing federal charges don't see coming until its too late.
The Two Clocks That Destroy You
Heres the thing nobody explains clearly enough. When you catch a federal case as a DACA recipient, two seperate systems activate against you. The criminal justice system - with its constitutional protections, its right to counsel, its appeals process - that's one clock. And then theres the immigration enforcement system, which operates by completely different rules. Different standards of proof. Different protections. Different urgency.
The criminal clock moves slow. Your entitled to discovery. Your entitled to challenge evidence. If convicted, your entitled to appeal. This process can take months or years, and during that time, most defendants assume they have time to figure out there immigration situation. They assume the appeal protects them. They assume that as long as the conviction isnt "final," immigration consequences are on hold.
That assumption destroys people.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn't wait for your appeal. They dont wait for post-conviction relief motions. They dont even reliably wait for a conviction anymore. In 2025, ICE agents detained Catalina "Xochitl" Santiago - a 28-year-old woman who had lived in the United States for two decades with valid DACA status that had been renewed SEVEN times. Think about that. Seven approved renewals. Two decades of following the rules. And ICE grabbed her anyway.
Paulo Cesar Gamez Lira, 27 years old, father of four US citizen children, was sitting in his driveway in Horizon City, Texas when seven federal agents - some wearing masks - surrounded his vehicle. Two of his young children were in the car. Despite having valid DACA status, he was detained for forty-two days before a federal judge ruled his detention unlawful and ordered his release.
OK so heres were people get confused. They think: "I have DACA. That protects me from deportation." And technicaly, thats what DACA is supposed to do - its deferred action, meaning the government agrees not to deport qualifying individuals. But deferred action is not immunity. Its not a green card. Its not citizenship. Its a government promise that can be broken the moment they decide your no longer "deserving" of that discretion.
A federal conviction - any felony, certain misdemeanors - gives them the excuse they need. But what the Santiago and Gamez Lira cases show is that increasingly, they dont even need the excuse. The protection is eroding in practice even when it exists on paper.
Why Your Valid DACA Status Wont Save You
Let that sink in for a moment. Two DACA recipients with valid, renewed status - one with seven renewals over twenty years - detained by ICE and held until federal judges intervened. This isn't what the brochures tell you DACA means. This isn't the "protection from deportation" that immigration websites describe.
At Spodek Law Group, weve seen this pattern accelerating. The gap between what DACA promises and what actually happens has widened dramaticaly in recent years. DHS is now actively urging DACA recipients to "self-deport" - thats the actual language from government communications in July 2025. The message is clear: they want you gone regardless of wheather you have a conviction or not.
But if you DO have a federal conviction - or even pending federal charges - you become a priority target. Data from 2025 shows that 75% of ICE arrests focused specificaly on people with criminal records. Your conviction moves you to the front of the line.
Heres the kicker though. That same data, reported by the Cato Institute, revealed that 65% of people detained by ICE had NO criminal convictions whatsoever. Read that again. They're not limiting enforcement to criminals. The criminal record just makes you easier to target, easier to justify, easier to process.
So what does having a federal conviction actualy do to your DACA status? Lets get specific.
The Criminal Bars That Trigger Automatic Loss
Under current DACA regulations, certain criminal convictions create automatic bars to eligibility. If you've been convicted of a felony offense - any felony - you will not be considered for DACA. Period. No discretion. No exceptions. The conviction alone disqualifies you.
But it's not just felonies. Certain misdemeanors trigger the same automatic bar. USCIS calls these "significant misdemeanors," and the list includes:
- Domestic violence
- Burglary
- Sexual abuse or exploitation
- Drug trafficking or distribution
- Unlawful possession or use of a firearm
- Driving under the influence (DUI)
Notice that list. A single DUI conviction can destroy your DACA status. Not multiple DUIs. Not a pattern. One conviction, and your done.
This is critical to understand: for immigration purposes, a "conviction" includes situations that might not feel like convictions under criminal law. If you entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere, or admitted to facts sufficient to find guilt, and the judge ordered any form of punishment - thats a conviction for immigration purposes. Pre-trial diversion programs that require no admission of guilt might avoid this. But most plea deals that criminal defense attorneys consider "wins" still count as convictions that destroy DACA eligibility.
The 90-Day Trap Nobody Warns You About
Heres were it gets even more dangerous. Even if your misdemeanor doesn't fall into the automatic-bar categories listed above, you can still lose DACA eligibility based on the sentence you recieve.
Any misdemeanor conviction resulting in more than 90 days of actual custody automatically becomes a "significant misdemeanor" for immigration purposes. This isn't about what crime you committed. Its about how long you served.
Think about what this means. Your criminal defense attorney might negotiate what they consider a great deal - charges reduced, sentence at 120 days instead of a year. They might celebrate this as a victory. You might feel relieved. But that 120-day sentence just transformed your misdemeanor into a DACA-barring "significant misdemeanor."
The difference between 89 days and 90 days is the difference between keeping and losing your status. Your criminal attorney probably doesn't know this. The prosecutor definatly doesn't care. And by the time you find out, the conviction is already on your record.
As Todd Spodek explains to clients facing this situation, the immigration consequences of a criminal case often matter more then the criminal consequences themselves. A sentence that seems lenient in criminal court can be devastating for immigration purposes.
This is the representation gap. The Supreme Court recognized this problem in Padilla v. Kentucky, ruling that criminal defense attorneys who fail to warn clients about immigration consequences are providing ineffective assistance of counsel. But that ruling doesn't help you if your attorney already gave bad advice and your already convicted. Post-conviction relief exists in some jurisdictions, but its expensive, time-consuming, and uncertain.
When ICE Shows Up at the Jail
Lets talk about the mechanics of how this actualy works. Because understanding the process might be the difference between being prepared and being blindsided.
When your arrested and booked into federal custody for a federal crime, that information goes into databases that ICE monitors. Even before your convicted - sometimes within hours of your arrest - ICE can place what's called a "detainer" on you.
An immigration detainer is a request from ICE asking the facility holding you to:
- Notify ICE before releasing you
- Hold you for up to 48 hours beyond your normal release so ICE has time to take custody
Heres the reality of that "48-hour hold." Let's say your federal case is dropped. Charges dismissed. Or you make bail. Under normal circumstances, youd walk out. But with an ICE detainer, the facility holds you for two additional days while ICE arranges to pick you up.
During those 48 hours, your not in criminal custody anymore. Your in immigration limbo. And once ICE takes custody, your in the immigration enforcement system - which, remember, operates on its own timeline with its own rules.
In federal custody, this process is basicaly automatic. State and local jails vary - some "sanctuary" jurisdictions refuse to honor ICE detainer requests, treating them as voluntary. But federal facilities cooperate with ICE. If your federal case lands you in federal custody, theres no sanctuary policy protecting you.
The detainer can be placed before conviction. It can be waiting for you from day one. And it creates a bridge that transfers you directly from criminal custody to immigration custody without ever touching free air.
What Your Criminal Defense Attorney Doesn't Know
This brings us to one of the most tragic patterns we see. A DACA recipient gets charged with a federal crime. They hire a criminal defense attorney - maybe even a good one. That attorney fights hard, negotiates skillfully, and achieves what looks like a solid outcome. Reduced charges. Managable sentence. The attorney is satisfied. The client is relieved.
Then ICE shows up.
The problem is that criminal defense and immigration law are seperate specialties, and most criminal defense attorneys - even experienced ones - dont understand immigration consequences at the level required to protect DACA recipients. They know that convictions can affect immigration status in a general sense. But they dont know the specific triggers. They dont know about the 90-day threshold. They dont understand that a plea to a lesser charge might still be an aggravated felony under immigration law even if its a misdemeanor under criminal law.
The Padilla v. Kentucky decision was supposed to fix this. It established that failure to advise clients about immigration consequences constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel. But that ruling creates a remedy after the damage is done - it lets you argue later that your attorney failed you. It doesn't prevent the failure in the first place.
At Spodek Law Group, we coordinate between criminal defense and immigration strategy from day one. The plea deal that makes sense criminaly might be catastrophic for immigration purposes. The sentence that seems lenient might cross a threshold that destroys eligibility. These considerations need to be part of the defense strategy from the beginning, not discovered after the fact.
The Expungement Illusion
Before we go further, let me address something that trips up alot of people. "I'll just get the conviction expunged." Ive heard this dozens of times from DACA recipients who think expungement will save them.
It wont.
For immigration purposes, expunged convictions still count. This is one of the cruelest ironies of the system. You can spend thousands of dollars, hire attorneys, go through the state court process, get a judge to officially expunge your record - and immigration law still considers you convicted. The "erased" conviction is fully visible to USCIS. It still bars DACA eligibility. It still triggers removal proceedings.
Some jurisdictions have post-conviction relief mechanisms that ARE recognized for immigration purposes - vacating a conviction based on a legal defect, for example. But these are narrow, expensive, and uncertain. And they require showing that the original conviction was somehow defective, not just that you've been rehabilitated or that time has passed.
Dont assume expungement protects you. Dont assume your record is "clean" because a state court said so. Immigration law operates by different rules, and those rules dont recognize most forms of expungement.
The Federal Difference That Changes Everything
Not all convictions are equal for immigration purposes, and federal convictions often carry worse immigration consequences then state convictions for similar conduct.
Part of this is definitional. Federal crimes are defined differently, and those definitions can map onto immigration "aggravated felonies" in ways that state charges might not. An offense that would be a simple misdemeanor under state law might be charged federally in a way that triggers automatic deportation.
Part of it is practical. Federal cases land you in federal custody, which means automatic ICE cooperation. Federal convictions go through a system thats more closely connected to immigration enforcement databases. The pipeline from federal conviction to ICE involvement is shorter and more direct.
And part of it is simply the current enforcement environment. Federal prosecutors are under pressure to demonstrate immigration enforcement results. Cases with immigration implications get attention. DACA recipients with federal charges represent exactly the kind of case that gets prioritized.
Heres the uncomfortable truth: if your a DACA recipient facing federal charges, your case might be getting more attention specificaly because of your immigration status. Your not just another defendant. Your a statistic someone wants to report.
What Happens Next - The Timeline Your Facing
So what actually happens after a federal conviction if your a DACA recipient? Let me walk you through the cascade of consequences, because understanding this timeline is essential to making informed decisions.
Immediately after conviction: Your DACA status is subject to termination. USCIS can deny any pending renewal application. If your status is current, it can be revoked. You are no longer protected from deportation and are no longer authorized to work.
Within days: If your in custody, ICE detainer takes effect. You may be transferred directly to immigration detention rather then being released. If your not in custody, ICE knows about the conviction and can initiate removal proceedings.
Removal proceedings: You'll be placed into immigration court, which has its own massive backlog. But being in proceedings doesn't mean your free - you can be detained throughout, and DACA recipients with criminal bars are often detained without bond.
During removal proceedings: Your criminal case might still be on appeal. Your might have filed for post-conviction relief. None of that pauses immigration proceedings. The two systems continue running on paralel tracks.
Removal order: If the immigration judge orders you removed, you face deportation to your country of citizenship - a country you may have left as a child, may not remember, may have no connections to. Your US citizen children dont get to come with you. Your entire life built in the United States becomes inaccessable.
Post-removal: A person removed for an aggravated felony faces a permanent bar to re-entry. Not ten years. Not twenty years. Permanent. You cannot legally return to the United States. Ever.
Thats the cascasde. Conviction to termination to detention to removal to permanent exile. And it can move faster then your criminal appeals process, meaning you might be deported while your still fighting the underlying conviction.
What You Need to Do Right Now
If your a DACA recipient facing federal charges - or if you've already been convicted and are trying to understand your options - time is the resource you have the least of. The two clocks are both running. One of them is running much faster then you think.
Do not assume your criminal defense attorney understands the immigration implications. Ask them specificaly about DACA consequences. Ask them about the 90-day threshold. Ask them wheather any proposed plea deal will trigger automatic immigration bars. If they cant answer these questions with specificity, you need additional counsel who specializes in the intersection of criminal defense and immigration law.
Do not assume your DACA status protects you. As the Santiago and Gamez Lira cases demonstrate, ICE is willing to detain DACA recipients with valid status and fight about it later in court. The protection exists on paper, but enforcement doesn't reliably respect it.
Do not assume you have time to figure this out. Immigration enforcement moves fast. Detainers get placed within hours. The window between arrest and ICE custody can be shorter then you expect.
The next 48 hours after federal arrest may determine the next 20 years of your life - or wheather you get to live those years in the country youve called home since childhood.
Call Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196. This is not a situation were waiting helps. Its a situation were every hour matters, and understanding both systems - criminal and immigration - is the only way to protect what your fighting for.
They've been building a case against you. They've been preparing for this moment. You should be too.
