New Act Makes DWI/DUI Offenses Grounds for Deportation, Barring Entry for Non-Citizens

The “Jeremy and Angel Seay and Sergeant Brandon Mendoza Protect Our Communities from DUIs Act of 2025” is straightforward: it significantly expands the ability of the federal government to bar non-citizens from entering the country (inadmissibility) or remove them if they are already here (deportability) based on convictions for driving while intoxicated or impaired (DWI/DUI).

Under this bill, a DWI/DUI conviction—or even just admitting to the underlying acts of the crime—becomes a reason for inadmissibility under Section 212(a)(2)(J) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Crucially, this applies regardless of whether the offense was classified as a misdemeanor or a felony under state or local law. If the local jurisdiction calls it DWI/DUI, it counts. For those already living in the U.S., the bill adds DWI/DUI convictions to the list of deportable offenses under Section 237(a)(2)(G), once again ignoring the misdemeanor/felony distinction.

The Misdemeanor Trap Door

This is where the bill hits the hardest. Right now, immigration law generally reserves deportation for more serious crimes, often felonies or crimes involving moral turpitude. This legislation changes the game by making a common, typically misdemeanor-level offense—a first-time DUI, for instance—a federal ticket to deportation. Think of a Legal Permanent Resident (green card holder) who has lived here for 20 years, owns a home, and has a family. If they got a single, non-injury misdemeanor DUI ten years ago, this bill could suddenly make them deportable. It doesn't matter that the state considered it a minor traffic-related offense at the time; the federal immigration consequence becomes permanent and severe.

Admission Without Conviction

Another detail that matters: the bill doesn’t strictly require a formal conviction to bar someone from entry. It states that inadmissibility applies if a non-citizen has been convicted or if they “admit to committing the acts that make up that crime.” This is a massive expansion. In many local court systems, people plead down charges or make statements during proceedings that could be interpreted as admitting to the underlying facts of the case. Under this new rule, those admissions could be used years later by immigration authorities to deny entry to someone seeking a visa or green card, even if the state charge was eventually dismissed or resolved without a conviction.

The Real-World Impact on Families

For non-citizens and their families, this legislation raises the stakes dramatically. A single DWI/DUI offense, which might result in a fine and license suspension for a citizen, could now mean permanent separation for a non-citizen. This affects not just those seeking entry, but long-term residents who have built their lives here. For example, a skilled worker on an H-1B visa or a parent with a green card could face removal proceedings based on a relatively minor past transgression, potentially upending their careers and separating them from citizen children and spouses. By making DWI/DUI a universal grounds for inadmissibility and deportability, the bill effectively turns state and local traffic-related offenses into federal immigration offenses, bypassing the usual severity thresholds.