You can be deported for two DUIs, but it depends on what was in each conviction, not just the count. Two standard misdemeanor DUIs with no aggravating facts are generally not deportable offenses on their own. Two DUIs become a deportation problem when one or both involved aggravating factors (driving on a suspended license, injury, a child in the car), when a sentence hit the one-year mark, when the person holds DACA or a nonimmigrant visa, or when the convictions trigger medical inadmissibility or wreck a pending application for status or naturalization.
Why One Ordinary DUI Usually Isn’t Deportable
A standard DUI, standing alone, is not listed as a deportable offense under federal immigration law. The Board of Immigration Appeals held in Matter of Lopez-Meza that a simple DUI is not a crime involving moral turpitude because it lacks a culpable mental state like intent or knowledge, noting the “long historical acceptance that a simple DUI offense does not inherently involve moral turpitude.”1Executive Office for Immigration Review. Matter of Lopez-Meza, 22 I&N Dec. 1188 (BIA 1999)
That classification matters because crimes involving moral turpitude (CIMTs) are one of the main criminal grounds for both deportability and inadmissibility. A conviction that doesn’t meet the CIMT threshold doesn’t trigger those grounds. The word doing the work in that holding is “simple.” Add almost any aggravating fact and the analysis changes.
When Two DUIs Become a Deportable Offense
The same decision that cleared simple DUI found that an aggravated DUI does qualify as a crime involving moral turpitude. Driving under the influence while knowingly on a suspended, canceled, or revoked license involves “a baseness so contrary to accepted moral standards” that it crosses the moral turpitude line.1Executive Office for Immigration Review. Matter of Lopez-Meza, 22 I&N Dec. 1188 (BIA 1999)
From there, federal law takes over. Any non-citizen convicted of two or more crimes involving moral turpitude that did not arise from a single scheme of criminal misconduct is deportable, whether the convictions came in one trial or several.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1227 – Deportable Aliens Two DUI convictions on separate occasions, where either or both involved aggravating factors, can satisfy that ground.
Common aggravators that push a DUI into CIMT territory include:
- Driving on a license suspended or revoked because of a prior DUI
- Having a child in the vehicle
- Causing bodily injury
The exact classification turns on how the state defines the offense and what elements the prosecution had to prove. That’s why two people with similar-looking records can land in very different places.
Even if only one of the two convictions qualifies as a CIMT, it can still create inadmissibility problems that block adjustment of status or re-entry after travel.
The Aggravated Felony Line
Aggravated felony is the most severe criminal classification in immigration law and effectively closes off every form of relief. A “crime of violence” carrying a prison sentence of at least one year qualifies.3Legal Information Institute (LII). Aggravated Felony From 8 USC 1101(a)(43) A DUI that causes serious bodily injury or death is often charged as a felony under state law, and if the sentence reaches 365 days, it falls into this category.
The threshold is exact. A sentence of 364 days avoids the aggravated felony label; 365 days triggers it. Suspended sentences count. Defense attorneys sometimes negotiate specifically for 364-day sentences to keep clients out of this zone. Once a conviction crosses the line, the consequences are severe: mandatory detention with no bond, ineligibility for cancellation of removal, asylum, and voluntary departure, and a permanent bar to re-entering the United States.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens
Most two-DUI situations don’t reach this level. The risk is real, however, when a DUI involved a collision with serious injuries and the state prosecuted it as a felony with a sentence at or above a year.
Medical Inadmissibility: A Separate Pathway
Even when the criminal grounds don’t quite fit, two DUIs can still block immigration benefits through medical inadmissibility. Federal law makes a person inadmissible if they have a physical or mental disorder with associated behavior that threatens their own safety or others’, or a history of such behavior likely to recur.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens USCIS treats alcohol use disorders as qualifying conditions and treats driving under the influence as the associated harmful behavior.
USCIS policy identifies specific triggers that require a new alcohol-focused medical evaluation. Two or more DUI arrests or convictions in the past ten years is one. Others include a single DUI classified as a felony, a DUI involving injury or death, and a DUI committed while already on a license suspended for a prior alcohol-related incident.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Physical or Mental Disorder With Associated Harmful Behavior If the civil surgeon diagnoses an alcohol use disorder and certifies it as a Class A medical condition, the applicant is inadmissible, regardless of how the DUIs are classified criminally.
Someone with two DUIs applying for a green card or returning from travel abroad can hit this wall even when the CIMT analysis comes out in their favor.
Naturalization and Good Moral Character
Good moral character is required for naturalization, cancellation of removal, and voluntary departure. USCIS policy is direct: evidence of two or more DUI convictions during the statutory period creates a rebuttable presumption that the applicant lacks good moral character.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Conditional Bars for Acts in Statutory Period The statutory period is generally five years before the application, or three years for spouses of U.S. citizens.8U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Chapter 2 – Adjudicative Factors
Rebuttable doesn’t mean automatic disqualification, but the burden shifts. Overcoming the presumption takes substantial, credible evidence that the offenses were an aberration: completion of treatment, sustained sobriety, community involvement, letters of support. Multiple DUI convictions can also support a separate “habitual drunkard” finding, which USCIS lists as its own bar to good moral character.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Conditional Bars for Acts in Statutory Period
DACA Recipients: One DUI Is Already Too Many
For Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, the calculation is harsher. USCIS guidelines disqualify anyone convicted of a felony, a significant misdemeanor, or three or more non-concurrent misdemeanors. A DUI is automatically a significant misdemeanor regardless of the sentence imposed.9U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Frequently Asked Questions One DUI conviction bars both initial applications and renewals.
A DACA recipient convicted of a single DUI loses work authorization and deferred action status and becomes subject to removal. A second DUI only hardens that outcome and makes any discretionary relief argument nearly impossible. DACA holders charged with DUI should have criminal defense counsel who understands the immigration stakes before any plea.
Visa Holders: Revocation After an Arrest
Since late 2015, the State Department has revoked nonimmigrant visas after a DUI arrest, not just a conviction. The basis is the same inadmissibility ground for a physical or mental disorder with associated harmful behavior.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens Consular officers issue a “prudential revocation,” and some visa holders learn about it only when they try to board a flight back to the United States after traveling abroad.
A revoked visa doesn’t automatically start removal proceedings for someone already inside the country, but it prevents re-entry if they leave. A new visa application requires disclosure of the DUI arrest, and the consular officer evaluates medical and criminal inadmissibility from scratch. With two DUI arrests, the chance of obtaining a new visa without first completing treatment and securing a favorable medical evaluation is slim.
If Removal Proceedings Start
If the Department of Homeland Security moves to deport you based on two DUIs, whether you can even be released on bond depends on the classification of the offenses. Federal law requires mandatory detention for non-citizens deportable for two or more crimes involving moral turpitude or for a single crime with a prison sentence of at least one year.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1226 – Apprehension and Detention of Aliens If the two DUIs qualify as CIMTs, ICE must detain you on release from criminal custody, and no bond hearing is available.
Challenging the Classification
The strongest defense often attacks the CIMT label itself. If neither conviction qualifies as a crime involving moral turpitude, the two-CIMT ground fails. This takes a detailed look at the specific statute of conviction, the elements proven, and whether the required mental state matches the federal definition. A conviction under a broadly worded state DUI statute does not always categorically match.
Cancellation of Removal
Non-permanent residents can seek cancellation of removal with ten years of continuous presence, good moral character during that period, no disqualifying convictions, and proof that removal would cause exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident spouse, parent, or child.11Legal Information Institute (LII). Cancellation of Removal Two DUIs cut against the good moral character element and can trigger the “stop-time rule,” which ends continuous-presence accrual when a qualifying offense is committed.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1229b – Cancellation of Removal; Adjustment of Status That can block someone from reaching the ten-year mark even after decades in the country.
Voluntary Departure
Voluntary departure lets you leave at your own expense instead of carrying a formal removal order. At the conclusion of proceedings, the departure window is 60 days and requires at least one year of physical presence, five years of good moral character, and the means to leave.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1229c – Voluntary Departure An aggravated felony conviction eliminates this option. Its advantage is avoiding the formal removal order and its re-entry bars.
Re-Entry Bars If You’re Removed
A formal removal order carries re-entry bars that scale with the circumstances. Removal upon arrival carries a five-year bar. Removal from within the United States after proceedings carries ten years. A second or subsequent removal extends the bar to twenty years. An aggravated felony conviction makes the bar permanent.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens
Separately, unlawful presence creates its own bars: three years for unlawful presence between 180 days and one year, and ten years for one year or more.14U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Unlawful Presence and Inadmissibility These stack on top of removal bars and extend the period during which you cannot lawfully return.
The short version: two DUIs can get you deported, but the path runs through the specific facts of each conviction, the sentences imposed, and your current immigration status. The same two convictions on paper can produce very different outcomes depending on which of those details apply.