Adam Crapser's criminal record began after he was kicked out of the Crapsers' house. He broke back in — to try to steal back his possessions, including shoes and a Bible, he says — and was convicted of burglary. After serving time and being released, he racked up several other criminal offenses, including assault.
The Times says Crapser later turned his life around, spending stints as a barbershop owner and in the insurance industry. He married and had several children; more recently, he was a stay-at-home father. But, the Times says, it was hard for him to hold a job without citizenship.
Here's where Congress comes in.
As Alexandra Starr reported for NPR last year, a law was passed in 2000 to grant automatic citizenship to children adopted by U.S. parents. But the law "only covered future adoptees and those 18 or younger," Starr reported. "One of the people who didn't make the age cut-off was Adam Crapser."
So Crapser had to apply for a Green Card to start down the path toward citizenship. When he did, his criminal convictions bumped up against a second law.
Starr explained that in 1996, "Congress vastly expanded the list of offenses that could result in deportation from the United States." Then, after the attacks on Sept 11, 2001, the government "started enforcing immigration law more zealously."
Federal authorities who received Crapser's Green Card application realized he was deportable because of his criminal convictions, the AP reports.
