Bearing in mind that I am not a licensed American lawyer or anything...
The American Immigration and Nationality Act lists a number of persons who are ineligible to enter the USA. Here is an excerpt provided by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service:
http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/frv...neligibilities
As far as criminal records go, the USA is primarily concerned with drug offences, people smuggling and crimes of "moral turpitude". According to US Customs and Border Protection: The most common types of crimes involving moral turpitude that would make you inadmissible are murder, manslaughter, rape, theft, bribery, forgery, aggravated battery, prostitution, and fraud.
At this time, driving under the influence, breaking and entering, disorderly conduct and simple assault are not considered crimes that make a person inadmissible to the United States. http://www.customs.gov/xp/cgov/trave...s_can_info.xml