Rendon analysis leads to amazing conclusion.

Wednesday, August 19th, 2015

In my last post, I discussed puzzlement that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals did not make a Rendon  analysis in its decision to remand Madrigal-Barcenas v. Lynch. Just a week later, two days ago, the Court issued a decision in Lopez-Valencia v. Lynch, a case involving theft, Cal. Penal Code § 484. Using a Rendon analysis, the Court concluded that the California theft statute cannot be considered a theft offense as it is overbroad and indivisible. This is the…

Matter of Almanza-Arenas, RIP

Tuesday, November 11th, 2014

It has finally happened. The Ninth Circuit ruled in the case of Almanza-Arenas v. Holder. The case at the Ninth Circuit was on review from the Board of Immigration Appeals. It stood for the proposition that when a record of conviction is ambiguous as to whether a crime makes one ineligible for relief, then the person seeking relief fails to meet the burden of eligibility, which is on the applicant, and therefore cannot be granted the relief. The issue arises…

Ninth Circuit Rendon decision reduces the reach of Young v. Holder

Wednesday, August 27th, 2014

I have written previously about how the Board of Immigration Appeals, the courts of appeal, and the Supreme Court have been struggling over how to determine whether an individual’s crime is a crime or moral turpitude or an aggravated felony. I wrote  three years ago about the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ en banc adventure in creating a missing element rule in trying to determine if a particular crime was a crime of moral turpitude or an aggravated felony in…