Miranda-Romero v. Lynch, No. 14-3387 (8th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseRomero was arrested in Kansas City for multiple traffic offenses. Officers identified Romero as a citizen of Mexico who had not been admitted or paroled for entry into the U.S. The immigration judge found that Romero was not eligible for cancellation of removal because he had been convicted in 1993 of violating California Penal Code 472, which criminalizes forgery and related conduct. The BIA agreed that section 472 is categorically a crime involving moral turpitude that carries a potential sentence of one year or more in prison, so that Romero was ineligible for cancellation of removal, 8 U.S.C. 1229b(b)(1)(C), 1227(a)(2). The Eighth Circuit denied a petition for review, rejecting Romero’s argument that section 472 criminalizes both acts requiring a specific intent to defraud and acts without this mens rea. The court held that that conviction under section 472 always includes the element of a specific intent to defraud.
Court Description: Gruender, Author, with Melloy and Benton, Circuit Judges] Petition for Review - Immigration. The BIA did not err in determining that petitioner's California conviction under a statute that criminalizes forgery and related conduct was a crime of moral turpitude making him ineligible for cancellation of removal; the statute in question, which has remained unchanged since 1872, has always been interpreted to include the element of specific intent to defraud and is thus categorically a crime involving moral turpitude.
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