Velasco-Tijero v. Lynch, No. 14-3803 (6th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, a citizen of Mexico, arrived illegally in the U.S. in 1988. He has four times been convicted of driving under the influence, most recently in 2010. In 1995, he pled guilty to property theft. The maximum punishment was one year in prison, but the Arkansas court imposed a suspended sentence of 30 days. He remained eligible, under then-existing immigration laws, to petition for suspension of deportation. The 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, combined to make ineligible for cancellation of removal any alien convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude punishable by a year or more in prison, regardless of the punishment actually imposed. In 2010, Ice agents detained petitioner. He sought cancellation of removal, arguing that his removal would cause “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” to his mother—a legal permanent resident—and his daughter—a U.S. citizen. The IJ expressly rejected petitioner’s argument that his eligibility for cancellation of removal should be determined by the law that was in effect at the time petitioner received his sentence. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, reasoning that 8 U.S.C. 1229b(b)(1)(C) prohibits cancellation of removal for aliens convicted of “offenses under” 8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(2); petitioner was convicted of such an offense .
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