There is no such thing as �automatic� deportation from the UK. Even those who have been properly convicted of the most serious crimes are allowed to stay after their sentence is served.
At the heart of this lies our Human Rights legislation. As I said in one of my postings only yesterday, the 1998 Human Rights Act (based on the European Convention on Human Rights � the ECHR) is deliberately vaguely drafted. It has thus been interpreted that it is illegal for the UK to deport a person to any country on the most flimsy grounds.
As an example, we have the case of Learco Chindamo, the son of an Italian gangster and Filipino mother. In 1995 at the age of 15 he stabbed headmaster Philip Lawrence to death. He was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years without parole, and upon release was to have been deported. However, he appealed and in August 2007 the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruled that he could not be expelled. They based this on two grounds. Firstly that as a citizen of the EU he had the right to settle in any EU country of his choice but secondly, they said that even if that had not been the case, deportation would have led to a breach of his rights under Article 8 (the right to a private family life) of the ECHR.
The Home Office said it would appeal the decision, but it did not (it had no grounds). I believe Chindamo was released from prison last year and the last I heard was living in London, enjoying police protection as there had been threats to his life. (Mr Lawrence�s widow suffered harassment, threats and burglary, coincidentally when Chindamo�s parole hearing was imminent, but was not afforded such courtesies).
If we cannot expel him, we have no chance of expelling innocent students, and it is dishonest of the government to suggest that we have.