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The administration is deporting as many criminal aliens as possible for the numbers, but it does n’t take into account military service, most people also don’t understand how complicated immigration law really is and how easy it is to run afoul of these complex laws. Making matters worse, Margaret Stock said, is that defendants in deportation cases are not automatically given attorneys and often ca n’t afford to hire their own, resulting in many being wrongfully deported. Any lawful permanent resident, veteran or not, can be deported upon conviction of a crime that falls under the extremely broad umbrella of a Crime Involving Moral Turpitude. This can be either a misdemeanor or felony, and typically includes anything from assault, fraud and perjury to robbery, theft and bribery. The rulings are often viewed by immigration lawyers as arbitrary and the immigration code now includes scores of petty offenses listed alongside the severe ones, all punishable by deportation. Still, the federal government is very deliberate in its review of cases involving veterans, insisted Gillian Christensen, spokeswoman for the U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement( ICE).