There are generally two key steps involved in deportation cases: the first involves determining whether or not an individual is removable under U.S. immigration law; the second involves determining whether or not the individual is eligible for any forms of relief that require or enable the government to allow that noncitizen to remain in the United States. Accordingly, the fact that a noncitizen meets the criteria for deportation does not, by itself, mean that an immigration judge will issue a deportation order, nor that a deportation order will ultimately be carried out. The types of deportation relief discussed on this site were explicitly created by Congress to enable specific classes of immigrants facing deportation to remain in the U.S.

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