Mary Anne Gehris describes herself as a victim of United States immigration law. She was born in Germany in 1965 and moved to the United States with her adoptive parents when she was less than two years old. A lawful permanent resident for nearly forty years, Ms. Gehris is married and has two children, one of whom suffers from cerebral palsy. In 1988, Ms. Gehris pulled another woman’s hair. She pled guilty to the charge of misdemeanor assault, following the advice of her public defender. In 1999, Ms. Gehris applied for United States citizenship. In response to her application, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) served Ms. Gehris with a notice to appear (NTA), charging her as a deportable, or what would now be called a removable, alien. INS told Ms. Gehris that her prior misdemeanor conviction was a “crime of violence,” a deportable offense under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended in 1966. Unlike most immigrants in her position, however, Ms. Gehris was allowed to stay in the United States after the Georgia Board of Pardons issued a pardon for her conviction, noting that the 1996 immigration laws had “adversely affected the lives of numerous Georgia residents.”