Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-cand-3_15-cv-03958/USCOURTS-cand-3_15-cv-03958-0/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 462
Nature of Suit: Naturalization, Petition For Hearing of Denial
Cause of Action: Review of denial of an application for naturalization

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United States District Court

Northern District of California

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

ADIL ELMAKHZOUMI,

Plaintiff,

v.

LORETTA E. LYNCH, et al.,

Defendants.

Case No. 15-cv-03958-JD 

ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO 

DISMISS

Re: Dkt. No. 15

Plaintiff Adil Elmakhzoumi has petitioned the Court to review the United States 

Citizenship and Immigration Services’ May 2015 denial of his application to become a naturalized 

citizen of the United States. Dkt. No. 1. The government has moved to dismiss the petition under 

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim. Dkt. No. 15. The Court 

grants the motion.

DISCUSSION

In 2005, Elmakhzoumi was convicted by a California state jury for sodomy in violation of 

California Penal Code Section 286(i). Dkt. Nos. 15, 16. The parties agree that the only legal 

question before the Court is whether this conviction counts as an “aggravated felony” under 

8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43). Id. Under subsections (A) and (F) of that section, an aggravated felony 

includes “rape” as well as a “crime of violence.” 

The reason this matters here is because a person who is not of good moral character cannot 

be naturalized. 8 U.S.C. § 1427(a), (e). And under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(f), a person “who at any time 

has been convicted of an aggravated felony” is not a “person of good moral character.” 

The Court reviews the denial of plaintiff’s naturalization application de novo. 8 U.S.C. 

§ 1421(c). United States v. Castro-Baez, 217 F.3d 1057 (9th Cir. 2000), is controlling and 

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United States District Court

Northern District of California

mandates dismissal. In Castro-Baez, the court considered “whether a rape conviction under Cal. 

Penal Code § 261 constitutes an ‘aggravated felony’ within the meaning of” the same statutory 

section at issue here, 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(A), and concluded that it did. In reaching that 

conclusion, the Castro-Baez court compared the statutory definition of the crime at issue to the 

“ordinary usage” of the term “rape.” Id. at 1059.

Applying that analysis here yields the same result. Elmakhzoumi was convicted under 

California Penal Code § 286(i). Under that section, “[a]ny person who commits an act of sodomy, 

where the victim is prevented from resisting by an intoxicating or anesthetic substance, or any 

controlled substance, and this condition was known, or reasonably should have been known by the 

accused, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for three, six, or eight years.” 

“Sodomy” is defined in § 286(a) as “sexual conduct consisting of contact between the penis of one 

person and the anus of another person. Any sexual penetration, however slight, is sufficient to 

complete the crime of sodomy.”

Under Castro-Baez, this statutory definition is to be compared with the “‘ordinary, 

contemporary, and common’ understanding of the term rape,” and our Circuit further held that 

“[i]n ordinary usage, rape is understood to include the act of engaging in non-consensual sexual 

intercourse with a person whose ability to resist has been substantially impaired by drugs or other 

intoxicants.” 217 F.3d at 1059. That holding applies in full to the statutory definition for 

plaintiff’s crime. The crime as defined by the statute is “non-consensual” (“victim is prevented 

from resisting . . .”); criminalizes a kind of “sexual intercourse” (“any sexual penetration . . . is 

sufficient to complete the crime”); and involves “a person whose ability to resist has been 

impaired by drugs or other intoxicants” (“the victim is prevented from resisting by an intoxicating 

or anesthetic substance”).1 

 

1

In Castro-Baez, the petitioner’s underlying conviction was for “an act of sexual intercourse 

accomplished with a person not the spouse of the perpetrator,” “[w]here a person is prevented 

from resisting by any intoxicating or anesthetic substance, or any controlled substance, and this 

condition was known, or reasonably should have been known by the accused.” Cal. Penal Code 

§ 261(a)(3). This conviction was held to be a “rape” and therefore an “aggravated felony” under 

the same federal immigration statutes that are at issue in this case. The only difference between 

this case and Castro-Baez is that this case involves “sodomy” rather than an express “act of sexual 

intercourse” under the California Penal Code, but this is a difference without distinction.

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Because the Court finds under Castro-Baez that a conviction under Cal. Penal Code 

§ 286(i) constitutes an “aggravated felony” within the meaning of 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43) as a 

“rape” under § 1101(a)(43)(A), there is no need to consider other subsections that might also have 

supported a finding that the conviction constituted an “aggravated felony.” And because the 

USCIS’ denial of plaintiff’s naturalization application can be affirmed on this ground alone, the 

Court grants defendant’s motion to dismiss under FRCP 12(b)(6). This is not an error plaintiff can 

cure through amendment, and the dismissal will consequently be with prejudice. 

CONCLUSION

The Clerk is directed to enter judgment in favor of the United States and close the case.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

Dated: June 15, 2016

JAMES DONATO

United States District Judge

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