I know this is an old thread but actually it is possible to delete across a join in T-SQL.
Excerpt from SQL Server Books Online
"
This example shows the Transact-SQL extension used to delete records from a base table that is based on a join or correlated subquery. The first DELETE shows the SQL-92-compatible subquery solution, and the second DELETE shows the Transact-SQL extension. Both queries remove rows from the titleauthors table based on the titles stored in the titles table.
/ SQL-92-Standard subquery /
USE pubs
DELETE FROM titleauthor
WHERE title_id IN
(SELECT title_id
FROM titles
WHERE title LIKE '%computers%')
/ Transact-SQL extension /
USE pubs
DELETE titleauthor
FROM titleauthor INNER JOIN titles
ON titleauthor.title_id = titles.title_id
WHERE titles.title LIKE '%computers%'
"
Hope this helps someone
