Immigration — cancellation of removal — turpitude

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Immigration — cancellation of removal — turpitude

An alien is not eligible for cancellation of removal, where he has a prior conviction for using a fraudulent Social Security card to obtain and maintain employment that amounted to a crime involving moral turpitude.

“[T]he Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth circuits have all declined to follow Beltran-Tirado. See Guardado-Garcia, 615 F.3d at 902-03; Serrato-Soto v. Holder, 570 F.3d 686, 692 (6th Cir. 2009); Hyder v. Keisler, 506 F.3d 388, 393 (5th Cir. 2007). We now join those circuits in declining to follow a decision that ‘appears to have expanded a narrow exemption beyond what Congress intended.’ Hyder, 506 F.3d at 393. As Rodriguez concedes, section 408(d)(1) and its attendant legislative history do not apply to him. And ‘[t]he mere fact that Congress chose to exempt a certain class of aliens from prosecution for certain acts does not necessarily mean that those acts do not involve moral turpitude in other contexts.’ Id. Furthermore, to adopt the reasoning in Beltran-Tirado would be to depart, at least partly, from our precedent establishing that crimes of deceit and fraud involve moral turpitude. See, e.g., Abdelqadar, 413 F.3d at 671; Padilla, 397 F.3d at 1020-21. We agree with the Fifth and Sixth circuits that such a departure from our precedent would not be appropriate. See Serrato-Soto, 570 F.3d at 692 (‘And in declining to follow Beltran-Tirado, we do not disturb established Sixth Circuit precedent finding crimes of fraud or dishonesty within the class of crimes involving moral turpitude.’); Hyder, 506 F.3d at 393.”

Petition Denied.

12-2253 Marin-Rodriguez v. Holder

On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals, Manion, J.