Stuart G. Friedman
Appeals & Immigration
Toll Free - US & Canada
In a 5 to 3 opinion, the US Supreme Court found that state criminal offenses are analagous to their federal counterpart even though they do not have an interstate commerce connection. Interstate commerce is a jurisdictional hook that Congress inserts into many statutes in order for there to be a …
Rejecting the Government’s argument to the contrary, the Board of Immigration Appelas held In the Matter of Juan-Emigdio-Giron has held that the sentencing guideline maximum sentence trumps the statutory maximum sentence for purposes of the petty offense exception. That petty offense exception holds that an individual is not inadmissible or removable …
This is a shout out to my good friend Larry Margolis at Law in Ann Arbor for his on his great handout on Michigan Criminal Immigration consequences. The handout breaks down most popular Michigan criminal offenses and indicates whether they are crimes involving moral turpitude (“CIMTs”) and/or aggravated felonies. …
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that the BIA’s revised interpretation of “obstruction of justice” announced in Matter of Valenzuela Gallardo, which required only “the affirmative and intentional attempt, with specific intent, to interfere with the process of justice,” departed from the BIA’s prior construction of …
Thanks to the Immigrant and Refugee Law Center for sharing the Board of Immigration’s recent unpublished ruling in Charles Borromeo Ajaelu, A058 739 058 (BIA Sept. 3, 2015). That ruling found that Georgia’s generic theft statute did not qualify as a theft offense for purposes of the INA because the Georgia …
A relatively unnoticed ruling in Mellouli v Lynch suggests that Descamps v United States could apply to certain drug offenses. Mellouli v. Lynch, No. 13-1034, 2015 WL 2464047 (June 1, 2015). In overruling Board of Immigration Appeal’s ruling in Matter of Martinez-Espinoza, 25 I&N Dec. 118 (BIA 2009), the high …
On October 30, 2015, the Attorney General ordered rehearing of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ decision in In the Matter of Chiarez-Casterjoin. In that decision, the Board of Immigration Appeals handed down a decision on the categorical rule which noted that a statute is not divisible under Descamps if …
In 2008, then Attorney General Mulkasey issued an Michael Mulkasey issued a troubling decision called In the Matter of Silva-Trevino, Attorney General Michael Mukasey. This decision ignored nearly a century’s worth of case law and drastically expanded an immigration adjudicator’s decision to delve in the underlying facts of a non-citizen’s criminal …