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Pardon by Kaine leads to deportation delay

A Newport News woman who faced deportation Thursday for a decade-old crime has received a one-year extension a day after being pardoned by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

Kathryn Anne Ingleson, 31, found out Wednesday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had granted a request to postpone her deportation, her attorney said. Earlier Wednesday, a Newport News Circuit Court judge amended Ingleson’s conviction for credit card theft to credit card fraud, which is not a deportable offense in Virginia.

The action came a day after Kaine gave Ingleson a simple pardon – or official forgiveness of the crime – and expressed his support for her to remain in the country and in Virginia.

Ingleson moved to the United States from England with her parents when she was 7 as a lawful resident but failed to become a naturalized citizen. In 1997 she was convicted of stealing credit cards from customers at the store where she worked to buy a Christmas tree, some ornaments and other items valued at about $340. She paid restitution and completed probation.

When she returned from visiting a relative in England in 2003, Ingleson was arrested and placed in removal proceedings. Her appeals have been denied by immigration officials and the courts and a deportation date set for Aug. 14.

Drennan said the office of U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., informed Ingleson on Wednesday that ICE had agreed to stay her deportation for one year. She was to meet with department officials after presstime to learn the details.

The next step is to take the pardon and the amended conviction to the Board of Immigration Appeals to ask that it reopen Ingleson’s case and vacate the removal order, Drennan said.

Ingleson was an 18-year-old single mother when she stole the credit cards in 1996. She confessed when confronted about it, but wasn’t prosecuted until the following year after a law took effect that expanded the categories of deportable offenses.
As part of a plea deal, Ingleson pleaded guilty to two counts of credit card theft and two counts of credit card fraud were dropped.

Newport News Circuit Court Judge H. Vincent Conway ruled Wednesday that credit card fraud was a more fitting conviction. In Virginia, credit card fraud is not a so-called “aggravating felony” that triggers deportation.

Since her conviction, Ingleson has worked at a packaging company, kept a clean record and raised her two children, ages 18 and 9, he said.

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