Garcia v. Sessions

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedJanuary 22, 2018
Docket14-3775
StatusUnpublished

This text of Garcia v. Sessions (Garcia v. Sessions) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garcia v. Sessions, (2d Cir. 2018).

Opinion

14-3775 Garcia v. Sessions

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

SUMMARY ORDER

RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL.

1 At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held 2 at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New 3 York, on the 22nd day of January, two thousand eighteen. 4 5 PRESENT: JOHN M. WALKER, JR., 6 ROBERT D. SACK, 7 DENNY CHIN, 8 Circuit Judges. 9 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 ALEJANDRO GARCIA GARCIA, AKA ALEJANDRO 11 GARCIA, AKA ALEJANDRA GARCIA, AKA ALEX 12 GARCIA, AKA, ALEXJENDRO GARCIA, AKA 13 ALEXANDRO GARCIA, AKA ALEZ GARCIA, AKA 14 GARCIA ALEJANDRO, 15 Petitioner, 16 17 v. No. 14-3775 18 19 JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, U.S. Attorney General, 20 Respondent. 21 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 APPEARING FOR PETITIONER: DANIEL E. WENNER, Day Pitney LLP, 23 Hartford, CT. 24 25 APPEARING FOR RESPONDENT: TIM RAMNITZ, attorney (Benjamin C. Mizer, 26 Assistant Attorney General, Shelley R. Goad, 27 Assistant Director, on the brief), Office of

1 1 Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, United 2 States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

3 Alejandro Garcia Garcia (“Garcia”) petitions for review of his order of removal to

4 the Dominican Republic. Upon due consideration, it is hereby ORDERED that the petition

5 is GRANTED and the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals is VACATED and

6 the case is REMANDED for such further proceedings as may be appropriate in the

7 circumstances and consistent with this order.

8 On January 14, 2013, the government instituted removal proceedings against

9 Garcia, a Dominican Republic national who was lawfully brought into the United States in

10 1965 as a thirteen-month old. The IJ found Garcia removable because of five prior

11 convictions: 1) a 1993 conviction for attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance in

12 the fifth degree for attempting to sell PCP in violation of New York Penal Law

13 (“N.Y.P.L.”) §§ 110.00 and 220.31; 2) a September 1996 conviction for theft of services

14 for jumping a subway turnstile in violation of N.Y.P.L. § 165.15; 3) a December 1996

15 conviction for the same thing; 4) a 1998 conviction for attempted assault in the third degree

16 in violation of N.Y.P.L. §§ 110.00 and 120.00; and 5) a 1999 conviction for petit larceny

17 in violation of N.Y.P.L. § 155.25. The IJ found that 1) the PCP conviction constituted an

18 aggravated felony under 8 U.S.C. § 1101 (a)(43)(B); 2) the assault conviction had been

19 entered pursuant to N.Y.P.L. 120.00(1), which made it a crime involving moral turpitude;

20 and 3) Garcia’s theft of services and petit larceny convictions were crimes involving moral

21 turpitude, which made Garcia removable under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii). Garcia

22 appealed the decision to the BIA, which affirmed the IJ’s decision holding Garcia

2 1 removable as charged. A final order of removal was entered against Garcia on September

2 9, 2014. Garcia timely appealed. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying

3 facts, procedural history, and specification of issues for review.

4 We review the decision of the IJ as supplemented by the BIA. See Chen v. Gonzales,

5 417 F.3d 268, 271 (2d Cir. 2005). “Ordinarily, this Court lacks jurisdiction to review orders

6 of removal based on an alien’s conviction for certain offenses,” but “[w]e retain jurisdiction

7 . . . to consider ‘questions of law,’ including whether an alien’s conviction qualifies as a

8 removable offense under the immigration laws.” Wala v. Mukasey, 511 F.3d 102, 105 (2d

9 Cir. 2007) (citation omitted).

10 An alien is deportable if, among other things, at any time after admission she 1) “is

11 convicted of an aggravated felony,” 8 U.S.C. § 1227 (a)(2)(A)(iii); 2) “is convicted of two

12 or more crimes involving moral turpitude, not arising out of a single scheme of criminal

13 misconduct,” id. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii), or 3) “has been convicted of a violation of (or a

14 conspiracy or attempt to violate) any law or regulation of a State, the United States, or a

15 foreign country relating to a controlled substance,” id. § 1227 (a)(2)(B)(i).

16 On appeal, the government argues that it has three independent grounds for

17 removing Garcia: 1) his PCP conviction is an “aggravated felony,” 2) all five of his

18 convictions amount to “crimes involving moral turpitude,” and 3) his PCP conviction is an

19 offense “relating to a controlled substance.”

3 1 I. Aggravated Felony

2 Our recent decision in Harbin v. Sessions, 860 F.3d 58 (2d Cir. 2017), disposes of

3 the government’s argument that Garcia is removable because of an aggravated felony.

4 There, we held that a conviction under N.Y.P.L. § 220.31 does not constitute the

5 commission of an aggravated felony for immigration purposes, and therefore is not

6 sufficient to make an alien removable. Id. at 61. Thus, Garcia, like Harbin, is not removable

7 under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii).

8 II. Two or More Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude

9 A conviction is a crime involving moral turpitude (“CIMT”) if the crime is

10 “inherently base, vile, or depraved, and contrary to the accepted rules of morality and the

11 duties owed between persons or to society in general.” Mendez v. Mukasey, 547 F.3d 345,

12 347 (2d Cir. 2008). “Because it is in the intent that moral turpitude inheres, the focus of the

13 analysis is generally on the mental state reflected in the statute.” Efstathiadis v. Holder,

14 752 F.3d 591, 595 (2d Cir. 2014) (internal quotation marks and alterations omitted). To

15 determine whether an offense is a CIMT, we employ “a categorical approach that ‘look[s]

16 not to the facts of’ the particular case, ‘but instead to whether [the offense] categorically

17 fits within’ the definition of a CIMT.” Id. (quoting Moncrieffe v. Holder, 133 S. Ct. 1678,

18 1684 (2013)). “The comparison of elements that the categorical approach requires is

19 straightforward when a statute sets out a single (or ‘indivisible’) set of elements to define

20 a single crime.” Mathis v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2243, 2248 (2016). In that case, we

21 “line[] up that crime’s elements alongside those of the generic offense and see[] if they

4 1 match.” Id.

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Related

James v. Mukasey
522 F.3d 250 (Second Circuit, 2008)
Immigration & Naturalization Service v. St. Cyr
533 U.S. 289 (Supreme Court, 2001)
United States v. Morillo
158 F.3d 18 (First Circuit, 1998)
James Ewing v. United States
386 F.2d 10 (Ninth Circuit, 1967)
Yan Chen v. Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, 1
417 F.3d 268 (Second Circuit, 2005)
Moncrieffe v. Holder
133 S. Ct. 1678 (Supreme Court, 2013)
Butt v. Gonzales
500 F.3d 130 (Second Circuit, 2007)
Wala v. Mukasey
511 F.3d 102 (Second Circuit, 2007)
Mendez v. Mukasey
547 F.3d 345 (Second Circuit, 2008)
Obeya v. Holder
572 F. App'x 34 (Second Circuit, 2014)
Mellouli v. Lynch
575 U.S. 798 (Supreme Court, 2015)
Mathis v. United States
579 U.S. 500 (Supreme Court, 2016)
Swaby v. Yates
847 F.3d 62 (First Circuit, 2017)
SOLON
24 I. & N. Dec. 239 (Board of Immigration Appeals, 2007)

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Garcia v. Sessions, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garcia-v-sessions-ca2-2018.