NAVARRO-LOPEZ v. GONZALES
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today released an opinion in NAVARRO-LOPEZ v. GONZALES, No. 04-70345, an administrative appeal. The panel consisted of Harry Pregerson and Edward Leavy, Circuit Judges, and Ralph R. Beistline, District Judge.
LEAVY, Circuit Judge:
Armando Navarro-Lopez petitions for review of a final order of removal, arguing that the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) erred in summarily affirming the immigration judge’s (IJ) determination that Navarro-Lopez’s conviction under California Penal Code § 32 for accessory after the fact was a conviction involving a crime of moral turpitude. Based on this conviction, the BIA concluded that Navarro-Lopez was inadmissible and ineligible for cancellation of removal. We have jurisdiction, and we deny the petition for review. FACTS AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS Navarro-Lopez is a native and citizen of Mexico who entered the United States in June 1984. On August 9, 1999, Navarro-Lopez pleaded guilty to a violation of Cal. Penal Code § 32, accessory after the fact, and was sentenced to 270 days in jail and three years probation. In February 2001, Navarro-Lopez traveled to Tijuana, Mexico. When he tried to re-enter the United States, he was denied entry and detained. Thereafter the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) filed an amended Notice to Appear (NTA) charging that he was inadmissible because he did not have valid entry documents under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(7)(A)(i)(I) and for having been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(2)(A)(i)(I). At his merits hearing Navarro-Lopez conceded the charge of inadmissibility under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a) (7)(A)(i)(I), but argued that his Cal. Penal Code § 32 conviction did not constitute a crime involving moral turpitude. The IJ determined that Navarro-Lopez’s conviction of violating Cal. Penal Code § 32 constituted a crime involving moral turpitude under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(2)(A)(i)(I):
It is a crime involving moral turpitude because a conviction under this provision does show conduct . . .
PREGERSON, Circuit Judge, dissenting:
The majority’s decision represents an unwarranted expansion of the definition of crimes involving moral turpitude and contravenes this circuit’s precedent. The majority holds that a conviction under California Penal Code § 32 for accessory after the fact is categorically a crime involving moral turpitude, even though one could be convicted under that statute for acts as sympathetic as providing food or shelter to one’s own child if you know the child has committed even the most minor felony. I therefore dissent. Moral turpitude has been defined by this circuit as an “act of baseness or depravity contrary to accepted moral standards.” Grageda v. INS, 12 F.3d 919, 921 (9th Cir. 1993); see also id. (further defining moral turpitude as conduct “so basically offensive to American ethics and accepted moral standards”) (citations omitted). The BIA has defined a crime involving moral turpitude as “[a]n act of baseness, vileness, or depravity, in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellow man or to society . . . [where the] fundamental inquiry [is]: Does the crime . . . in its nature imply personal depravity or baseness upon the part of its perpetrator?”. Matter of E–, 2 I. & N. Dec. 134, 140 (BIA 1944, AG 1944). In a more vivid description, the Supreme Court defined moral turpitude as conduct . . .