"I love this country," said Robert Fisher, preparing an airplane wing for painting, after his deportation case was dismissed. "There's no other place I'd rather be."

greg bryan / Arizona Daily Star

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At 44, Robert Fisher readily admits to making some mistakes in his life.

Two of them: an argument with his wife a few years back and a burglary in his younger days that left him with two criminal convictions.

Fisher, a native of Canada, said he thought he'd paid his dues. He pleaded guilty to the state crime of domestic violence and the burglary. He served time, paid fines and underwent counseling. But his old convictions nearly got the legal permanent resident deported.

After a lengthy court battle with federal immigration authorities, a judge dismissed the deportation case against Fisher earlier this month. He can stay legally in the country he has lived in since he was 10.

Fisher said he feels as if a heavy weight has been lifted off his shoulders.

"I love this country — there's no other place I'd rather be," he said recently, sitting on a park bench next to Donna, his U.S.-born wife of 13 years. "But this experience was a real eye-opener; it turned my life upside down."

Fisher's lawyer, Jennifer Huang, said her client is staying thanks in part to a recent decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in October that immigration officials cannot use a domestic-violence conviction as grounds for deportation. In relation to Fisher's burglary conviction, Huang said, the immigration judge decided that the federal government had not built a strong enough case.

Fisher's case was dismissed without prejudice, Huang said, so the government can choose to refile it. Matthew Kaufman, the attorney for Immigration and Customs Enforcement prosecuting Fisher's case, wouldn't say if that is likely to happen.

Under federal law, legal immigrants who are not citizens have long been deemed deportable for serious crimes, including murder and rape. But less-serious crimes of the past, including those related to domestic violence, became grounds for deportation a decade ago. It wasn't until December 2004 that judges were required to let immigrants know that pleading guilty to some misdemeanor crimes could affect their legal status, immigration attorneys say.

Congress wanted it that way when it passed anti-terrorism and immigration laws, including the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. The legislation expanded the kinds of acts for which legal residents can be deported, and left little room for judges deciding deportation cases to consider such factors as ties to family, contributions to the community and length of U.S. residency, said attorney Lynn Marcus, director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Arizona. In some cases, she noted, discretion is eliminated altogether.

Legal immigrants often plead guilty to misdemeanor crimes, including assault, shoplifting and possession of controlled substances, without understanding that they could be setting themselves up for deportation, Marcus said.

While the attorney doesn't argue against deporting someone who "did something horrible, such as rape," she said it makes no sense to go after rehabilitated immigrants.

"They've paid their debt to society, but they're still ripped apart from their families and their homes," Marcus said.

Old crimes usually come back to haunt legal immigrants when they apply for citizenship or when they seek to renew their permanent residency card — commonly known as a green card — that expires every 10 years, said Victoria López, executive director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project. The group provides free legal services to indigent immigrant detainees who are fighting deportation.

"We see it very frequently," said López, adding that the recent 9th Circuit Court ruling could benefit other immigrants in the state facing deportation related to domestic violence — how many is hard to determine.

As for Fisher, he said he never expected that a morning visit about a year ago to the Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Tucson would wreak so much havoc.

He ended up at the agency after unsuccessfully trying to replace his lost Social Security card because, he was told, his green card was expired.

When he tried to renew it in 2003, an immigration employee suggested that he apply for citizenship instead. He obliged. The April day he dropped by the agency last year to check on the status of his citizenship application, Fisher said, he was immediately strip-searched, handcuffed, threatened with deportation and put in a holding cell.

His father, Don, and his wife put up a $7,500 bond, and he was released later that day. "It was awful," Fisher said. "I felt so different when I came out of there."

He makes no excuses for the behavior that put him in legal hot water. But he feels it is unfair to pay twice for his crimes.

In the 1998 domestic-violence conviction, Fisher said, he paid a $300 fine and attended counseling sessions to learn how to deal with his anger. He and his wife made amends and haven't had any problems since, Fisher noted.

His burglary conviction dates to 1981, the year he was arrested for selling a friend's stolen goods. Fisher was given a four-year sentence but went free after one year. Fisher said serving time was the catalyst that made him want to improve himself. "I turned my life around," he said. "I studied while inside, I went to counseling, I worked. When I got out, I felt really good about myself."

He steered clear of legal trouble until the summer day he and his wife argued over how to park a boat in their backyard. Fisher said he would later regret calling the police.

Since the incident and until Fisher stepped into the immigration agency, he said, the couple lived a pleasant routine. By then, Fisher was working with his father painting aircraft, including some belonging to the Department of Homeland Security.

The past 19 months were difficult for his family, Fisher said, recalling that he slept little and worried plenty.

He and his wife have no children, Donna Fisher said, but care for 15 stray dogs they have taken in over time. "I kept wondering what I was going to do without him," she said. "I kept wondering how they can rip our lives apart when he's been here over 30 years."

These days Fisher and his wife say they feel relieved.

"Now that this is behind us, we can get on with our life," Fisher said. "I'm going to stay at home a lot and mind my own business."