16 yr. old, charged with petty theft at sears, arrested & must go to court. what can i expect & do?

Most likely you will not get deported but the government could deny your citizenship. You are 16yrs old so I really doubt you would go to jail. Most likely you will have a fine to pay and get put on supervison. What is your criminal history? Have you done this before? As far as hiring a lawyer, obviously this is up to you. Where are your parents? Your High School might find out, but if as you say you took under $100 in items it is a relatively minor offense. As far as going to college, you probably should have thought about that prior to committing the act. This is a juvenile record and should be sealed and therefore not attainable by the public.