Wilks v. Attorney General

273 F. App'x 196
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedApril 15, 2008
DocketNos. 06-4653, 07-2131
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 273 F. App'x 196 (Wilks v. Attorney General) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilks v. Attorney General, 273 F. App'x 196 (3d Cir. 2008).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

PER CURIAM.

Damion Anthony Derrick Wilks petitions for review of two orders of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”). For the reasons below, we will deny the petition for review in No. 06-4653, grant the petition for review in No. 07-2131, and remand the matter to the BIA.

Wilks, a citizen of Jamaica, entered the United States as a visitor in 1993 and adjusted his status to that of a lawful permanent resident in 1997. In March 2005, he pleaded guilty to carrying a firearm without a license. In August 2005, Wilks pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced to, inter alia, six to twelve months of house arrest. On May 3, 2006, he was charged as removable as an aggravated felon and for the firearm offense.

Wilks argued that his aggravated assault conviction was not an aggravated felony because it was not a crime of violence and he was not imprisoned for at least a year on the charge. The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) disagreed and sustained the ground for removal.1 The IJ concluded that Wilks was ineligible for any discretionary relief based on the aggravated felony and ordered Wilks removed to Jamaica. Wilks appealed. The BIA agreed with the IJ that the conviction was an aggravated felony and dismissed the appeal. Wilks filed a timely petition for review which was docketed at No. 06-4653.

Wilks then filed a petition pursuant to Pennsylvania’s Post-Conviction Relief Act (“PCRA”) challenging the aggravated assault conviction.2 While it was pending, he [198]*198filed a motion to reopen which the BIA denied. After the state court granted the petition and modified his sentence to be no more than 364 days, Wilks filed another motion to reopen with the BIA. He argued that the sentence for the aggravated assault charge was now below the one-year time period needed for the conviction to constitute an aggravated felony. The BIA denied the motion as untimely and number-barred. The BIA also refused to reopen the proceedings sua sponte. Wilks filed a timely petition for review, which was docketed at No. 07-2131 and consolidated with the petition at No. 06-4653.

Whether Wilks’s conviction constitutes an aggravated felony

We first review the BIA’s determination that the aggravated assault conviction is an aggravated felony. We have jurisdiction to consider this question of law and exercise plenary review over the BIA’s conclusion. Garcia v. Attorney General, 462 F.3d 287, 291 (3d Cir.2006). The term aggravated felony includes a crime of violence, as defined in 18 U.S.C. § 16, for which the term of imprisonment is at least one year. 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(F). A crime of violence is defined under § 16 as

(a) an offense that has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another, or

(b) any other offense that is a felony and that, by its nature, involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense.

To determine whether a conviction is a crime of violence, we use a categorical approach and examine the elements of the offense rather than the specific facts of the crime. Leocal v. Ashcroft, 543 U.S. 1, 7, 125 S.Ct. 377, 160 L.Ed.2d 271 (2004). We have held that a mens rea of recklessness is not sufficient to satisfy § 16. Popal v. Gonzales, 416 F.3d 249, 254 (3d Cir.2005); Tran v. Gonzales, 414 F.3d 464 (3d Cir. 2005).

Wilks argues that some subsections of Pennsylvania’s aggravated assault statute, 18 Pa.C.S. § 2702, only require the mens rea of recklessness. The BIA observed that Wilks was charged with violating one of the first four subsections and that he pleaded guilty to a felony in the second degree.3 Because the first two subsections of § 2702 are graded first-degree felonies, the BIA determined that Wilks’s conviction fell within either the third or fourth subsections of § 2702. Because both subsections require attempting to or intentionally or knowingly causing bodily injury, the BIA concluded that Wilks’s conviction was a crime of violence under 18 U.S.C. § 16.

While Wilks does not specifically challenge any of the BIA’s findings regarding his conviction, he argues that its examination of the records of his conviction went beyond that which we allowed in Popal. However, where a statute is phrased disjunctively, we are not barred from looking at the record of conviction to determine [199]*199which subsection was violated. Garcia, 462 F.3d at 292. Here, in any event, the BIA did not look at the specific facts of Wilks’s crime,4 it looked at the judgment and sentencing order to determine the specific subsection of § 2702 under which the conviction fell. We agree with the BIA that the aggravated assault conviction was a crime of violence, as the provisions of § 2702 under which Wilks must have been convicted require a mens rea greater than recklessness. Thus, on the record before it, the BIA correctly determined that Wilks’s conviction constituted an aggravated felony, and we will deny the petition for review in No. 06-4653.

Whether we have jurisdiction over the BIA’s denial of Wilks’s second motion to reopen

We now turn to the petition for review of the BIA’s order denying Wilks’s second motion to reopen. Pursuant to 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(a), the BIA may sua sponte reopen a case at any time. A petitioner must show an exceptional situation to make a prima facie case for sua sponte reopening. Cruz v. Attorney General of U.S., 452 F.3d 240, 249 (3d Cir.2006). However, the BIA has the discretion to deny a motion to reopen even if a prim,a facie case is made. Id. Wilks argues that the BIA should have used its authority to sua sponte reopen the proceedings after his sentence was modified.5 He contends that his aggravated assault conviction can not be an aggravated felony because the sentence was reduced to less than a year of imprisonment. The government argues that because the BIA’s discretion to sua sponte reopen proceedings is unfettered, we lack jurisdiction to review the decision. Calle-Vujiles v. Ashcroft, 320 F.3d 472, 475 (3d Cir.2003).

In Cruz, the petitioner filed a motion to reopen after his qualifying conviction had been vacated.

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McIntyre v. Attorney General of the United States
463 F. App'x 154 (Third Circuit, 2012)

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Bluebook (online)
273 F. App'x 196, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilks-v-attorney-general-ca3-2008.