By: Derek Hawkins//October 17, 2017//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Delfino Rodriguez-Contreras v. Jefferson B. Sessions III
Case No.: 17-1335
Officials: BAUER, EASTERBROOK, and MANION, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Immigration Appeal
Rodriguez-Contreras contends that 720 ILCS 5/24–1.1(a) does not match the federal crime because the state statute bars felons from possessing pneumatic weapons as well as those that use explosives. The Board did not address this argument. Instead it stated that Negrete-Rodriguez v. Mukasey, 518 F.3d 497 (7th Cir. 2008), and Estrada-Hernandez v. Lynch, 819 F.3d 324 (7th Cir. 2016), have held that a violation of 720 ILCS 5/24–1.1(a) is an aggravated felony, so there was no work for the Board to do.
Whether it will be necessary to exercise discretion is open to question. When the removal proceeding began, the agency’s sole stated reason for deeming Rodriguez-Contreras removable was his conviction of an aggravated felony; the administrative prosecutor did not rely on any of Rodriguez Contreras’s other convictions or contend that his felon-in-possession conviction, shorn of the aggravated-felony characterization, justifies removal. The first order of business on remand therefore will be to determine whether this removal proceeding should be dismissed outright.
Remanded