[PUBLISH]

In the

United States Court of Appeals

For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 20-11654

____________________

RUPERTO HERNANDEZ ZARATE, 

Petitioner,

versus

U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, 

Respondent.

____________________

Petition for Review of a Decision of the

Board of Immigration Appeals

Agency No. A215-569-562

____________________

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 1 of 40
2 Opinion of the Court 20-11654

Before JORDAN, JILL PRYOR, and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges.

JORDAN, Circuit Judge:

Under federal law, a conviction for a “crime involving moral 

turpitude” (a CIMT) can have significant immigration consequences. For example, a person convicted of a CIMT is not eligible 

for the discretionary relief of cancellation of removal. See 8 U.S.C. 

§§ 1182(a)(2) & 1229b(b)(1)(c). The question presented in this appeal—one which has led to a circuit split—is whether a conviction 

for falsely representing a social security number, see 42 U.S.C. 

§ 408(a)(7)(B), is a CIMT. 

I 

In 2019, Ruperto Hernandez Zarate—a citizen and national 

of Mexico—was convicted of violating 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(7)(B) for 

using a social security card that was not his. As relevant here, that 

provision makes it a felony for someone “(7) . . . for the purpose of 

obtaining anything of value from any person, or for any other purpose . . . (B) with intent to deceive, [to] falsely represent[ ] a number 

to be the [S]ocial [S]ecurity account number assigned by the Commissioner of Social Security to him or to another person, when in 

fact such number is not the [S]ocial [S]ecurity account number assigned by the Commissioner of Social Security to him or to such 

other person[.]” 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(7)(B).

An immigration judge ruled that Mr. Zarate was statutorily 

ineligible for cancellation of removal because his conviction under 

§ 408(a)(7)(B) was for a CIMT, but otherwise would have granted 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 2 of 40
20-11654 Opinion of the Court 3

him that relief. Mr. Zarate appealed to the Board of Immigration 

Appeals, which agreed with the immigration judge and dismissed 

the appeal. See A.R. at 3–5. The BIA explained that § 408(a)(7)(B) 

requires intent to deceive, and as a result Mr. Zarate’s conviction 

was for a CIMT. Noting that the circuits were divided on the issue, 

it quoted our decision in Walker v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 783 F.3d 1226, 

1229 (11th Cir. 2015), for the proposition that, “[g]enerally, a crime 

involving dishonesty or false statement is considered to be one involving moral turpitude.” The BIA did not, however, address 

whether a violation of § 407(a)(7)(B) is inherently base, vile, or depraved. And that, as we will later explain, is a significant omission.

II 

We “review de novo the legal question of whether a[ ] conviction qualifies as a [CIMT].” Gelin v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 837 F.3d 

1236, 1240 (11th Cir. 2016). In determining whether a conviction 

is a CIMT, we employ the categorical approach (if the statute of 

conviction is not divisible and sets out alternative means of committing a single offense) or the modified categorical approach (if 

the statute of conviction is divisible and creates separate offenses). 

See Pereida v. Wilkinson, 141 S. Ct. 754, 762–63 (2021); George v. 

U.S. Att’y Gen., 953 F.3d 1300, 1303–04 (11th Cir. 2020). This 

means that “[w]hether a crime involves the depravity or fraud necessary to be one of moral turpitude depends on the inherent nature 

of the offense, as defined in the relevant statute, rather than the 

circumstances surrounding a defendant’s particular conduct.” Itani 

v. Ashcroft, 298 F.3d 1213, 1215–16 (11th Cir. 2002). See also 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 3 of 40
4 Opinion of the Court 20-11654

Keungne v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 561 F.3d 1281, 1284 (11th Cir. 2009) 

(“In other words, the determination that a crime involves moral 

turpitude is made categorically, based on the statutory definition 

or nature of the crime, not the specific conduct predicating a particular conviction.”). We ask whether the “least culpable conduct 

necessary to sustain a conviction under the statute meets the standard of a crime involving moral turpitude.” Gelin, 837 F.3d at 1241 

(internal quotation marks and citation omitted).1

III 

CIMTs have been part of the immigration lexicon since the 

late 19th century, initially appearing in laws providing for the exclusion of certain categories of persons from the United States. See 

generally Jordan v. De George, 341 U.S. 223, 229 n.14 (1951). Remarkably, however, the term “moral turpitude” has never been defined by federal statute or rule, and its contours have been left to 

case-by-case adjudication by administrative and judicial tribunals 

for over a century. Because “moral turpitude” had its legal origins 

in defamation law as 19th-century common-law courts sought a 

1 Where the statute of conviction is divisible—i.e., where it sets out different 

offenses—and some of the crimes set out in the statute involve moral turpitude and others do not, the person must “prove that his actual, historical offense of conviction” is not a CIMT. See Pereida, 141 S. Ct. at 763. Here, however, it is undisputed that Mr. Zarate was convicted under § 408(a)(7)(B). So 

the question for us is a purely legal one: whether a conviction under that provision is a CIMT.

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 4 of 40
20-11654 Opinion of the Court 5

manageable test for slander and libel per se, see Julia Ann SimonKerr, Moral Turpitude, 2012 Utah L. Rev. 1001, 1010–25 (2012), the 

term has proven amorphous (and difficult to define and confine) in 

the immigration arena. 

The BIA has, understandably, described “moral turpitude” 

as a “nebulous concept.” In re Tran, 21 I. & N. Dec. 291, 292 (BIA 

1996). That may be a kind characterization. As one commentator 

has put it, “[t]he term ‘moral turpitude’ is probably incapable of 

precise definition in a legal sense, since it basically involves moral 

or ethical judgments.” Annotation, What Constitutes “Crime Involving Moral Turpitude” Within Meaning of [§§] 212(a)(9) and 

241(a)(4) of Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.A. 

[§§] 1182(a)(9), 1251(a)(4)), and Similar Predecessor Statutes 

Providing for Exclusion or Deportation of Aliens Convicted of 

Such Crime[s], 23 A.L.R. Fed. 480, § 2[a] (1975 & 2021 Supp.). 

Some have remarked that, to the extent that definitions of the term 

exist, “[i]t’s difficult to make sense of . . . [them].” Arias v. Lynch, 

834 F.3d 823, 831 (7th Cir. 2016) (Posner, J., concurring in the judgment). 

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court has held that the term 

“moral turpitude” is not unconstitutionally vague. “Whatever 

else” it “may mean in peripheral cases,” the Court said, case law 

“make[s] it plain that crimes in which fraud was an ingredient have 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 5 of 40
6 Opinion of the Court 20-11654

always been regarded as involving moral turpitude.” De George, 

341 U.S. at 232.2

2 Justice Jackson, joined by Justices Frankfurter and Black, dissented in De 

George because they believed that “the phrase ‘crime involving moral turpitude,’ as found in the Immigration Act, has no sufficiently definite meaning to 

be a constitutional standard for deportation.” 341 U.S. at 232 (Jackson, J., dissenting) (footnote omitted). As Justice Jackson put it in his distinctive prose, 

the phrase “is not one which has settled significance from being words of art 

in the profession. If we go to dictionaries, the last resort of the baffled judge, 

we learn little except that the expression is redundant, for turpitude alone 

means moral wickedness and depravity and moral turpitude seems to mean 

little more than morally immoral. The Government confesses that it is ‘a term 

that is not clearly defined,’ . . . [and] [e]xcept for the Court’s opinion, there 

appears to be universal recognition that we have here an undefined and undefinable standard.” Id. at 234–35 (footnotes omitted). As to the government’s 

suggestion that “moral turpitude” be measured against the moral standards 

that prevail in contemporary society to determine immorality, Justice Jackson 

had this response: “Can we accept ‘the moral standards that prevail in contemporary society’ as a sufficiently definite standard for the purposes of the Act? 

This is a large country and acts that are regarded as criminal in some states are 

lawful in others. We suspect that moral standards which prevail as to possession or sale of liquor that has evaded tax may not be uniform in all parts of the 

country, nor in all levels of ‘contemporary society.’ How should we ascertain 

the moral sentiments of masses of persons on any better basis than a guess?” 

Id. at 237–38. 

In our view, Justice Jackson got it right. And several of our colleagues in other 

circuits agree. See Islas-Veloz v. Whitaker, 914 F.3d 1249, 1261 (9th Cir. 2019) 

(Fletcher, J., concurring) (“Now, almost seventy years after De George, ‘moral 

turpitude’ is as undefined and undefinable as ever . . . . It is time to recognize 

another failed enterprise.”) (citation omitted); Arias, 834 F.3d at 835 (Posner, 

J., concurring in the judgment) (“Alas, a great dissent by a great Justice has 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 6 of 40
20-11654 Opinion of the Court 7

So what exactly does “moral turpitude” mean? We turn to 

that question next.

A 

According to the BIA, “moral turpitude” refers to “conduct 

that is inherently base, vile, or depraved, and contrary to the accepted rules of morality and the duties owed between persons or 

to society in general. To involve moral turpitude, a crime requires 

two essential elements: reprehensible conduct and a culpable mental state.” Matter of Silva-Trevino, 26 I. & N. Dec. 826, 833–34 (BIA 

2016) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). We give 

deference to the BIA’s definition, as well as to its application of that 

definition in precedential opinions. See Negusie v. Holder, 555 

U.S. 511, 516–17 (2009); Arevalo v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 872 F.3d 1184, 

1187–88 (11th Cir. 2017).

Our cases similarly explain that moral turpitude involves “an 

act of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellow men, or to society in general, 

contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between man and man.” Smith v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 983 F.3d 1206, 

1210 (11th Cir. 2020) (quoting Keungne, 561 F.3d at 1284). This is 

basically the definition first used by federal courts—including the 

former Fifth Circuit—in immigration cases addressing moral turpitude in the early 20th century. See, e.g., Coykendall v. Skrmetta, 

been forgotten.”). But we are of course bound by the majority opinion in De 

George.

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 7 of 40
8 Opinion of the Court 20-11654

22 F.2d 120, 120–21 (5th Cir. 1927); Ex parte Machida, 277 F. 239, 

241 (W.D. Wash. 1921); United States v. Uhl, 203 F. 152, 154 

(S.D.N.Y. 1913), aff’d, 210 F. 860 (2d Cir. 1914). Accord 1 John Bouvier, Bouvier’s Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia 846 

(1914) (explaining that moral turpitude, “as ground of exclusion of 

an alien, means an act of baseness, vileness or depravity in the private and social duties which one owes to society, and as applied to 

offenses includes only such crimes as manifest personal depravity 

or baseness”); 5 Judicial and Statutory Definitions of Words and 

Phrases 4581 (West 1904) (defining moral turpitude as “anything 

done contrary to justice, honesty, principle, or good morals”).3

Consistent with the two elements identified by the BIA—

reprehensible conduct and a culpable mental state—we agree with 

the Fourth Circuit that “by using the phrase ‘involving moral turpitude’ to define a qualifying crime, Congress meant to refer to 

more than simply the wrong inherent in violating [a] statute. Otherwise, the requirement that moral turpitude be involved would 

be superfluous. It follows, therefore, that a crime involving moral 

turpitude must involve conduct that not only violates a statute but 

also independently violates a moral norm.” Mohamed v. Holder, 

769 F.3d 885, 888 (4th Cir. 2014). Indeed, that is the view we expressed in our early immigration cases addressing the concept of 

3 For an early scholarly attempt to grapple with the concept of moral turpitude, see Note, Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude, 43 Harv. L. Rev. 117 

(1929).

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 8 of 40
20-11654 Opinion of the Court 9

moral turpitude. See Skrmetta, 22 F.2d at 121 (“From the fact that 

those acts have by statute been made punishable as crimes it does 

not follow that they are inherently immoral, or involve moral turpitude, within the meaning of the provision in question.”); Guarneri v. Kessler, 98 F.2d 580, 581 (5th Cir. 1938) (“All federal offenses 

are statutory but that does not fix their inherent nature.”).

Our survey of the legal landscape indicates that fraud offenses are—rightly or wrongly—categorically deemed to involve 

moral turpitude. As noted, the Supreme Court in De George rejected a vagueness challenge to the phrase “involving moral turpitude” by explaining that “crimes in which fraud was an ingredient 

have always been regarded as involving moral turpitude.” De 

George, 341 U.S. at 232. Given that pronouncement, it would be 

inappropriate for us (regardless of our own views) to now declare 

that fraud offenses are not always CIMTs. 

Based on De George, it seems to us that fraud may be a sui 

generis category necessarily involving moral turpitude, and that 

only non-fraud offenses must also satisfy the “inherently base, vile, 

or depraved” requirement to constitute CIMTs. Such a conclusion, 

we believe, is supported by a number of decisions from the BIA and 

our sister circuits. See Garcia-Martinez v. Barr, 921 F.3d 674, 676 

(7th Cir. 2019) (“The Supreme Court has held that crimes involving 

fraud, for example, almost always involve moral turpitude.”);

Bobadilla v. Holder, 679 F.3d 1052, 1057 (8th Cir. 2012) (“The Supreme Court established in [De George] that a crime in which fraud 

is an element is categorically a CIMT.”); Navarro-Lopez v. 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 9 of 40
10 Opinion of the Court 20-11654

Gonzales, 503 F.3d 1063, 1074 (9th Cir. 2007) (en banc) (Reinhardt, 

J., concurring, joined by a majority of the en banc court) (“Crimes 

of moral turpitude are of basically two types, those involving fraud 

and those involving grave acts of baseness or depravity.”) (internal 

quotation marks and citation omitted), overruled on other grounds 

by United States v. Aguila-Montes de Oca, 655 F.3d 915 (9th Cir. 

2011); Guarneri, 98 F.2d at 581 (“Fraud is an ingredient of the offense [of smuggling] . . . . [T]o clandestinely introduce goods into 

the United States with intent to defraud the revenue is dishonest 

and fraudulent and involves moral turpitude.”); Mercer v. Lence, 

96 F.2d 122, 124 (10th Cir. 1938) (“conspiring to defraud a person 

by deceit and falsehood” is an “offense of moral turpitude”); Matter 

of Kochlani, 24 I. & N. Dec. 128, 130 (BIA 2007) (“[C]rimes that 

have a specific intent to defraud as an element have always been 

found to involve moral turpitude.”). Cf. United States v. Smith, 

420 F.2d 428, 432 (5th Cir. 1970) (addressing whether a prior conviction could be used for impeachment and explaining that a crime 

involves moral turpitude if “the ingredient of fraud” is present). 4

4 Commentators largely seem to be in agreement. See, e.g., Lindsay M. 

Kornegay & Evan Tsen Lee, Why Deporting Immigrants for “Crimes Involving Moral Turpitude” is Now Unconstitutional, 13 Duke J. Const. L. & Pub. 

Pol. 47, 64 (2017) (“While the fraud precedents appear mixed, these cases can 

be reconciled by focusing on whether fraudulent intent is an essential element 

of the conviction.”); Brian C. Harms, Redefining “Crimes of Moral Turpitude”: A Proposal to Congress, 15 Geo. Immigr. L. J. 259, 269 (2001) (“Crimes 

of fraud against the government or its authority, like all crimes with an 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 10 of 40
20-11654 Opinion of the Court 11

Nevertheless, as explained below, this treatment of fraud offenses does not help the government here. That is because under 

the categorical approach the crime Mr. Zarate committed does not 

include fraud as an element or ingredient. 

B 

Applying the categorical approach, we look to the elements 

of 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(7)(B), Mr. Zarate’s statute of conviction. See, 

e.g., Keungne, 561 F.3d at 1284. We have explained that the “elements of [an] offense [under § 408(a)(7)(B)] are (1) false representation of a Social Security number, (2) with intent to deceive, (3) for 

any purpose.” United States v. Harris, 376 F.3d 1282, 1291 (11th 

Cir. 2004).

Fraud requires that a misrepresentation be made to obtain a 

benefit from someone or cause a detriment to someone. See generally Restatement (Second) of Torts § 531 (A.L.I. 1977) (“One who 

makes a fraudulent misrepresentation is subject to liability to the 

persons . . . whom he intends or has reason to expect to act or to 

refrain from action in reliance upon the misrepresentation, for pecuniary loss suffered by them through their justifiable reliance in 

element of fraud, are ‘crimes involving moral turpitude.’”). But see NavarroLopez, 593 F.3d at 1069 (Pregerson, J., specially concurring) (asserting that 

“[c]rimes involving fraud are not a per se category of crimes involving moral 

turpitude” and “merely present examples of conduct that may fall under the 

umbrella of inherently base and vile conduct that shocks the conscience”). 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 11 of 40
12 Opinion of the Court 20-11654

the type of transaction in which he intends or has reason to expect 

their conduct to be influenced.”); Black’s Law Dictionary 775 (10th 

ed. 2014) (defining fraud as a “knowing misrepresentation or knowing concealment of a material fact made to induce another to act

to his or her detriment”); Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law 

202 (2016) (defining fraud as “any act, expression, omission or concealment calculated to deceive another to his or her disadvantage”). A violation of § 408(a)(7)(B) can sometimes be for the 

“purpose of obtaining anything of value from any person”—which 

would involve fraud—but under the categorical approach the 

“least culpable conduct necessary to sustain a conviction,” Gelin, 

837 F.3d at 1241 (citation omitted), is the false representation of the 

Social Security number for “any other purpose,” i.e., for a nonfraudulent purpose. See Harris, 376 F.3d at 1291.

In Mr. Zarate’s case, the BIA concluded that a violation of 

§ 408(a)(7)(B) involves moral turpitude because the statute requires 

intent to deceive. But that analysis is both inconsistent with BIA 

precedent (which we discuss below) and incomplete because it fails 

to address the second moral turpitude element: inherent baseness, 

vileness, or depravity. As we explain, the BIA has long held that 

non-fraud offenses involving deception are not automatically 

CIMTs.

C 

We start our discussion with the BIA’s treatment of offenses 

which require deception or misrepresentation but not fraud. The 

relevant decisions are Matter of M—, 1 I. & N. Dec. 619 (BIA 1943),

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 12 of 40
20-11654 Opinion of the Court 13

Matter of R—, 5 I. & N. Dec. 29 (BIA 1952), Matter of B—M—, 6 

I. & N. Dec. 806 (BIA 1955), Matter of B—, 7 I. & N. Dec. 342 (BIA 

1956), Matter of Espinosa, 10 I. & N. Dec. 98 (BIA 1962), Matter of 

Marchena, 12 I. & N. Dec. 355 (BIA 1967), Matter of Flores, 17 I. & 

N. Dec. 225 (BIA 1980), and In re Jurado-Delgado, 24 I. & N. Dec. 

29 (BIA 2006). Each one remains good law today, and we discuss 

them in detail. 

As early as 1943, the BIA found that crimes involving a false 

representation to the government could constitute CIMTs, even if 

they lacked an explicit element of fraud, provided that the representation was inherently fraudulent. In Matter of M—, the BIA

considered whether knowingly and deliberately making a false 

statement as to citizenship in a Selective Service questionnaire for 

the purpose of evading military service was a CIMT. See 1 I. & N. 

Dec. at 619. The BIA found that it was because such a statement 

was “akin to fraud, i.e., an endeavor to alter rights by deception.” 

Id. at 621. In 1952, the BIA affirmed this decision in Matter of R—,

reiterating the inherently fraudulent nature of the offense and finding strong support from the Supreme Court’s then-new decision in 

De George. See 5 I. & N. Dec. at 38.

In Matter of B—M—, decided in 1955, the BIA addressed 

whether a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001—a divisible false statement 

statute which at the time set out three different crimes—necessarily constituted a CIMT. See 6 I. & N. Dec. at 807–09. Although 

it had previously ruled that a false statement in violation of § 1001 

constituted a CIMT when the statement is made to obtain a 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 13 of 40
14 Opinion of the Court 20-11654

benefit, see Matter of P—, 6 I. & N. Dec. 193, 194 (BIA 1954) (extension of a visa to stay in the United States), the BIA concluded in 

Matter of B—M— that applicable precedents “do not require a conclusion that every violation of . . . § 1001 necessarily involves the 

element of fraud and we must, therefore, examine the statute to 

determine whether the crime which the [person] is alleged to have 

committed involves moral turpitude.” 6 I. & N. Dec. at 808. The 

person in Matter of B—M— had been convicted under the second 

clause of § 1001, which prohibited the making of any “false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements or misrepresentations.” The BIA 

explained, however, that “the fact that the word ‘fraudulent’ appears does not compel the conclusion that every offense under this 

clause would involve moral turpitude since the offense may have 

consisted only of a false and not a fraudulent statement.” Id. at 808.

See also id. at 809 (“Our decision in Matter of P— . . . was not intended as a definitive ruling that all violations of 18 U.S.C. [§] 1001 

necessarily involve moral turpitude, and any statements therein 

which might indicate such a conclusion are hereby modified accordingly.”). Because the person in Matter of B—M— had not 

made any fraudulent statement when falsely representing that she 

was not employed by the United States, her false statement “did 

not constitute a crime involving moral turpitude.” Id. at 809. 

Seven years later, in Matter of Espinosa, the BIA again addressed whether a conviction for violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 constituted a CIMT. It again ruled that a false statement or representation does not necessarily involve moral turpitude. In that 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 14 of 40
20-11654 Opinion of the Court 15

decision, the person was convicted under the third clause of § 1001, 

which prohibited the making or use of “any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or entry.” The BIA ruled that such a conviction did 

not necessarily involve moral turpitude and could not “at the present serve as the basis for deportation.” 10 I. & N. Dec. at 99. The 

BIA also held that, even if the conviction had been under the second clause of § 1001—for making any false, fictitious, or fraudulent 

statements or misrepresentations—the offense was not a CIMT. 

“[T]he simple answer lies in the fact that the record does not establish that there was a conviction for fraud rather than for false misrepresentation. The second clause of . . . § 1001 lists the commission of several acts which can constitute the crime. These acts are 

set forth in the disjunctive . . . . Under such circumstances, there is 

a question as to whether the conviction was based upon the existence of one element rather than another.” Id. at 99–100.5

5 The BIA has since held that the current version of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2), 

which prohibits knowingly and willfully making “any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation” within the jurisdiction of the 

federal government, is a CIMT because the false statement (1) must have “the 

capacity to impair or pervert the functioning of a [g]overnment agency” and 

(2) must be made with intent to deceive or mislead. See Matter of Pinzon, 26 

I. & N. Dec. 189, 193 (BIA 2013). In so holding, the BIA expressly distinguished 

prior decisions like Matter of Espinosa. See id. at 194 (“[T]he decisions the 

respondent relies on addressed an earlier version of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 and are 

therefore distinguishable.”). As one commentator has remarked, Matter of 

Pinzon “reflects . . . an adjustment of decisional law consonant with a 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 15 of 40
16 Opinion of the Court 20-11654

Matter of Marchena, decided by the BIA in 1967, reaffirmed 

the decision in Matter of B—M—. At issue in Matter of Marchena 

was a conviction under the second clause of § 1001—the clause prohibiting the making of any “false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements or misrepresentations.” See 12 I. & N. Dec. at 356. The BIA 

held that the minimum conduct proscribed by the clause was a false 

statement and not a fraudulent one, and therefore the conviction 

was not a CIMT: “On this record the conviction may have been for 

making a false statement, and we may not assume that the plea of 

guilty concerned a fraudulent statement. The crime cannot be held 

to involve moral turpitude.” Id. at 357.6 

Less than a year after Matter of B—M— was decided, in Matter of B—, the BIA addressed a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1542 

rewritten criminal statute.” Hans Christian Linnartz, Lies, Damn Lies, and 

Lies Involving Moral Turpitude: When Does a False Statement Carry Immigration Consequences?, 11 Charleston L. Rev. 665, 674–75 (2017).

6 Shortly before Matter of B—M— was issued, the BIA held that a violation of 

a provision of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act prohibiting certain actions

done “with intent to defraud or mislead,” such as selling margarine labeled as 

butter, was a CIMT. See Matter of P—, 6 I. & N. Dec. 795, 797–98 (BIA 1955)

(emphasis removed). The BIA explained that, “[s]ince it has been determined 

that 21 U.S.C. [§] 333(b) contains an inherent intent to deceive or mislead and 

because moral turpitude inheres in the criminal intent, we conclude that the 

offenses for which respondent was convicted in 1954 were inherently wrong 

and morally reprehensible, not merely prohibited by statute of recent origin.”

Id. at 798. Although the BIA still cites Matter of P— occasionally for the definition of moral turpitude, its reasoning—if read broadly—is incompatible with 

Matter of B—M— and its progeny.

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 16 of 40
20-11654 Opinion of the Court 17

for making a false statement “in an application for passport with 

intent to induce or secure the issuance of a passport under the authority of the United States, either for his own use or the use of 

another.” Because the statute required proof that the false statement be made for the purpose of inducing or securing a U.S. passport—i.e., obtaining a benefit—the government had to show that 

“the applicant must knowingly make a false statement with the specific intent that the false statement should be acted upon” by the 

government. See 7 I. & N. Dec. at 343–44. “Fraud, therefore, must 

be used in connection with the inducing or the securing of the issuance of the passport,” and as a result the offense “involves moral 

turpitude.” Id. at 344.

In Matter of Acosta, a 1973 decision, the BIA similarly held 

that a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(6)—for making a false 

statement in the acquisition of a firearm—is a CIMT. 14 I. & N. 

Dec. 338, 338–39 (BIA 1973). Citing Matter of B—, the BIA reasoned that a statement intended or likely to deceive a licensed firearms dealer involves moral turpitude “because fraud and materiality are essential elements of the crime.” Id.

In 1980, the BIA held in Matter of Flores that a conviction 

under 18 U.S.C. § 1426(b), which criminalizes uttering or selling 

false or counterfeit paper relating to registry of aliens with 

knowledge of their counterfeit nature, constituted a CIMT because 

the criminalized conduct “inherently involves a deliberate deception of the government and an impairment of its lawful functions,” 

making “fraudulent conduct . . . implicit in the statute.” 17 I. & N. 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 17 of 40
18 Opinion of the Court 20-11654

Dec. at 230. The BIA made clear that “it is not necessary that [a] 

statute . . . include the usual phraseology concerning fraud in order 

for it to involve moral turpitude,” so long as “fraud is so inextricably woven into the statute as to clearly be an ingredient of the 

crime.” Id. at 228. In this way, Matter of Flores built out the principle recognized in Matter of B—: crimes involving false statements 

can lack a specific fraud element but still be inherently fraudulent—

and thus a CIMT under De George—depending on the nature of 

the acts involved or the results intended.

In 2013, the BIA applied Matter of Flores in In re Jurado-Delgado to find that a Pennsylvania statute which criminalized making 

a false statement with “intent to mislead a public servant in performing his official function,” 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 4904(a), is a 

CIMT. 24 I. & N. Dec. at 34. Though the BIA did not specifically 

say the criminalized conduct was inherently fraudulent, it relied on 

Matter of Flores, focused on the “intent to mislead,” and recognized the moral turpitude involved in impairing and obstructing 

government functions. See id. at 35. See also Ramirez v. Sessions, 

887 F.3d 693, 704 (4th Cir. 2018) (“As the BIA’s rationale in Matter 

of Jurado–Delgado suggests, an act of obstruction, standing alone, 

does not categorically involve moral turpitude. In other words, 

there must be some other aggravating element that pushes a mere 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 18 of 40
20-11654 Opinion of the Court 19

violation of the law into the territory of moral depravity.”) (citation 

omitted).7

These BIA decisions teach that making a false statement or 

engaging in general deception is not necessarily the same thing as 

fraud. See Matter of Correa-Garces, 20 I. & N. Dec. 451, 454 (BIA 

1992) (“Crimes involving fraud are considered to be crimes involving moral turpitude,” while “[c]onvictions for making false statements have been found to involve moral turpitude.”). As a result, 

a violation of § 408(a)(7)(B) is not categorically a CIMT: “The intent 

to deceive is not equivalent to the intent to defraud, which generally requires an intent to obtain some benefit or cause a detriment. 

There are many situations in which a person may have the intent 

to deceive without having the intent to defraud.” Ahmed v. 

Holder, 324 F. App’x 82, 84 (2d Cir. 2009) (citation omitted). Accord Arias, 834 F.3d at 826 (“[I]t is difficult to see how a violation 

of § 408(a)(7)(B) is categorically a crime involving moral turpitude

. . . . The statute criminalizes falsely representing a [S]ocial [S]ecurity number to be one’s own for purposes of obtaining various 

7 One unpublished BIA decision questions whether Matter of Marchena, Matter of Espinosa, and Matter of B—M— still hold precedential value in the wake 

of Matter of Flores and its progeny. In re Hill, No. AXXX XX0 667, 2008 WL 

5181745, at *2 n.1 (BIA Nov. 12, 2008). But this overreads Matter of Flores.

The consistent principle underlying all of the BIA’s decisions is that crimes 

involving false statements which do not contain fraud as either an element or 

ingredient, perhaps inherently, do not necessarily constitute CIMTs. This is 

certainly not the case for a crime involving the making of a false statement 

“for any purpose.”

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 19 of 40
20 Opinion of the Court 20-11654

[S]ocial [S]ecurity benefits but also ‘for any other purpose.’ It is not 

difficult to imagine some purposes for which falsely using a [S]ocial 

[S]ecurity number would not be ‘inherently base, vile, or depraved.’”); Beltran-Tirado v. I.N.S., 213 F.3d 1179, 1184–85 (9th Cir. 

2000) (holding that § 408(a)(7)(B) is not a CIMT in part because the 

acts it proscribes are “mala prohibita, not mala in se”). This conclusion is consistent with decisions from the Fourth and Tenth Circuits holding that violations of state and local identity theft laws 

were not CIMTs when they lacked any ingredient of fraud or interference with a government function. See Nunez-Vasquez v. Barr, 

965 F.3d 272, 286 (4th Cir. 2020) (“[T]he statute at issue here need 

not involve fraud or harm to the government. Because a conviction under Va. Code Ann. § 18.2–186.3(B1) does not require morally reprehensible conduct, Nunez-Vasquez’s identity theft conviction is not a CIMT.”); Flores-Molina v. Sessions, 850 F.3d 1150, 

1168 (10th Cir. 2017) (“For a false statement to violate [Denver Municipal Code] § 38-40, it need not involve fraud, cause harm to the 

government or anyone else, obtain a benefit for the speaker, or be 

given with the intent to achieve any of these ends.”).

We recognize that the Fifth and Eighth Circuits have held 

that a violation of § 408(a)(7)(B) is a CIMT, and that we have come 

to the same conclusion in an unpublished opinion. See, e.g.,

Munoz-Rivera v. Wilkinson, 986 F.3d 587, 591 (5th Cir. 2021);

Moreno-Silva v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 481 F. App’x 611, 613 (11th Cir. 

2012); Guardado-Garcia v. Holder, 615 F.3d 900, 902 (8th Cir. 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 20 of 40
20-11654 Opinion of the Court 21

2010). But we find these decisions unpersuasive for various reasons. 

First, both we and the Fifth Circuit failed to consider the numerous BIA decisions discussed above, incorrectly relied on the 

“intent to deceive” and dishonesty elements of the statute to declare that moral turpitude is unequivocally involved, and did not 

recognize that fraud generally requires acting to obtain a benefit or 

cause a detriment. See Munoz-Rivera, 986 F.3d at 591; MorenoSilva, 481 F. App’x at 613. De George holds that fraud offenses are 

categorically CIMTs, see 341 U.S. at 232, but it does not go further 

than that. See Barrera-Lima v. Sessions, 901 F.3d 1108, 1122 (9th 

Cir. 2018) (“We have repeatedly cautioned that . . . crimes other 

than fraud must be more than serious; [they] must offend the most 

fundamental moral values of society, or as some would say, shock 

the public conscience.”) (internal quotation marks omitted); Arias, 

837 F.3d at 835 (Posner, J., concurring in the judgment) (“[N]otice 

that the word used by the Court [in De George] to describe a crime 

of moral turpitude was ‘fraud,’ not ‘deception,’ and De George was 

a fraud case in the core sense of ‘fraud’: it was a conspiracy to defraud the federal government of tax revenues.”). And, to repeat 

what we’ve said, under the categorical approach § 408(a)(7)(B) does 

not have fraud as a necessary element or ingredient. The “minimum conduct criminalized,” Munoz-Rivera, 986 F.3d at 591, is the 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 21 of 40
22 Opinion of the Court 20-11654

false representation of a Social Security number, with intent to deceive, for “any purpose.” See Harris, 376 F.3d at 1291.8

Second, the Eighth Circuit based its holding that a violation 

of § 408(a)(7)(B) is a CIMT on the premise that “[i]ntent to deceive 

for the purpose of wrongfully obtaining a benefit is an essential element of § 408(a)(7)(B).” Guardado-Garcia, 615 F.3d at 902. That 

statutory premise, however, is mistaken. As we set out in Harris, 

376 F.3d at 1291, the conduct proscribed by the statute can be undertaken for “any purpose.” Under the categorical approach, that 

means a violation of this provision does not have fraud as an element or ingredient and therefore is not necessarily a CIMT. Again, 

if the intent to deceive is not for the purpose of obtaining a benefit 

or causing a detriment, moral turpitude is not automatically involved. 

Third, the BIA’s two-pronged moral turpitude standard requires not just a culpable mental state, but also conduct that is reprehensible, i.e., inherently base, vile, or depraved. See Silva-Trevino, 26 I. & N. Dec. at 833–34. We give deference to the BIA’s 

definition of moral turpitude, see Negusie, 555 U.S. at 516–17, and 

it is inappropriate to conflate the BIA’s two requirements in nonfraud scenarios so that one (a culpable mental state) automatically 

8 The Sixth Circuit committed a similar mistake when it deemed a violation of 

a Mississippi law prohibiting the fraudulent use of a Social Security number 

with the intent to deceive to be a CIMT, though that statute lacked the same 

“any purpose” language found in § 408(a)(7)(B). See Serrato-Soto v. Holder, 

570 F.3d 686, 691 (6th Cir. 2009). 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 22 of 40
20-11654 Opinion of the Court 23

satisfies the other (moral reprehensibility). Our cases have for the 

most part treated mental state and reprehensibility as separate concepts, though recognizing that one can inform the other. See, e.g.,

Smith, 983 F.3d at 1211 (“The question before us is whether the 

level of intent needed to commit the crime of vehicular homicide 

in Florida is ‘sufficiently base, vile, or depraved’ to constitute a 

crime involving moral turpitude.”). Moreover, an agency is generally required to “follow its own procedure” when the “rights of individuals are affected.” Hall v. Schweiker, 660 F.2d 116, 119 (5th 

Cir. Unit A Sept. 9, 1981) (binding under Bonner v. City of Prichard, 

661 F.2d 1206, 1207 (11th Cir. 1981) (en banc)). In fact, we have 

found that “[t]he BIA can . . . abuse its discretion by not following 

its own precedents without providing a reasoned explanation for 

doing so.” Ferreira v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 714 F.3d 1240, 1243 (11th 

Cir. 2013). Here, the BIA erred by collapsing the two requirements 

of moral turpitude into one.

Fourth, our earliest immigration cases did not use mens rea 

as an independent and sufficient basis for a finding of moral turpitude, and instead separately analyzed whether the statute of conviction was for an offense that was “inherently base, vile, or depraved, [and] contrary to accepted rules of morality.” See 

Skrmetta, 22 F.2d at 120–21 (holding that making or possessing 

wine for one’s own use was not a CIMT). In fact, we ruled that 

illegal re-entry after deportation and failure to register for the 

draft—offenses which involved some deception and deliberate and 

intentional conduct against the United States—were not CIMTs. 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 23 of 40
24 Opinion of the Court 20-11654

See Rodriguez v. Campbell, 8 F.2d 983, 984 (5th Cir. 1925) (“The 

appellant did not, within the meaning of the statute, commit a 

crime involving moral turpitude by re-entering or attempting to reenter the United States from Mexico after she had been deported, 

and without having been duly admitted and inspected.”); Pollard 

v. United States, 261 F. 336, 337–38 (5th Cir. 1919) (holding in a 

criminal case that violation of the Selective Service Act “was not 

[an offense] involving moral turpitude”).

Language in some of our more recent cases may be read to 

suggest that a culpable mental state in a crime involving dishonesty 

is always enough to constitute moral turpitude regardless of moral 

reprehensibility. See, e.g., Walker, 783 F.3d at 1229 (“Generally, a 

crime involving dishonesty or false statement is considered to be 

one involving moral turpitude.”); Itani, 298 F.3d at 1215 (same). 

But such broad language is cabined by the word “generally,” which 

does not mean “always” but rather “as a rule” or “usually.” See

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 732 

(4th ed. 2009). Moreover, the cases with such language involved 

offenses with fraud as an element or ingredient. Walker concerned 

the uttering of a forged instrument (requiring the intent to injure 

or defraud another to obtain a monetary benefit), and Itani 

concerned the misprision of a felony (requiring knowledge of a 

crime and an active role in concealment for the benefit of another). 

See Linnartz, Lies, 11 Charleston L. Rev. at 691 (“A genuinely evil 

motivation, such as the intent to defraud or to pervert the course 

of justice, seems to capture the idea of ‘moral turpitude,’ without 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 24 of 40
20-11654 Opinion of the Court 25

punishing those whose intentions are benign or whose falsehoods 

[are] relatively harmless.”). Finally, such language—if taken 

literally to mean that non-fraudulent deceit always involves moral 

turpitude—would be inconsistent with the BIA’s decisions in 

Matter of B—M—, Matter of B—, Matter of Espinosa, and Matter 

of Marchena, as well as with our earliest cases addressing moral 

turpitude. And where there is an intra-circuit conflict, we follow 

our earliest precedents. See Walker v. Mortham, 158 F.3d 1177, 

1188 (11th Cir. 1998). 

Our holding today does not foreclose the possibility that a 

conviction for a violation of § 408(a)(7)(B) may be a CIMT. But if 

the BIA is going to hold that it is, it will need to do what it has so 

far failed to do in Mr. Zarate’s case—it will have to apply its twopronged moral turpitude standard in toto and decide whether the 

statute, under the categorical approach, involves conduct that is 

“reprehensible,” i.e., conduct that is “inherently base, vile, or depraved, and contrary to the accepted rules of morality and the duties owed between persons or to society in general.” Silva-Trevino, 

26 I. & N. Dec. at 833–34 (internal quotation marks omitted). See 

also Simon-Kerr, Moral Turpitude, 2012 Utah L. Rev. at 1007–08 

(criticizing courts for “ignor[ing] community moral sentiments 

when applying the [moral turpitude] standard”).

We remand to the BIA for that purpose. 

IV 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 25 of 40
26 Opinion of the Court 20-11654

We grant Mr. Zarate’s petition, vacate the BIA’s decision, 

and remand for further proceedings.

PETITION GRANTED. 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 26 of 40
20-11654 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 1

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge, Concurring:

I agree with the Court’s reasoning. I write separately to 

highlight why and how 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(7)(B) is analyzed under 

the categorical approach. The case law in this Circuit and the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on how to analyze statutes under the 

categorical approach have left me scratching my head at times. To 

help future litigants avoid that fate, I provide a brief analysis of the 

categorical approach and its application in the immigration context. I begin with the background on how we analyze statutes to 

determine whether they include crimes involving moral turpitude. 

Next, I lay out the structure of the statute at issue in this case and 

determine that it is an indivisible statute. And, finally, I explain 

why remand is appropriate in this case. 

I. 

When the Department of Homeland Security charges an individual as being removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act, that individual may seek cancellation of removal under 8 

U.S.C. § 1229b. In order to be eligible for cancellation of removal 

as a nonpermanent resident, an individual has the burden of proving four things: 1) continuous presence in the United States for at 

least ten years preceding the application, 2) good moral character, 

3) no prior convictions, for among other things, crimes involving 

moral turpitude, and 4) exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to a qualifying relative if applicant is removed. See 8 U.S.C. 

§ 1229b(b). At issue in this case is the third category, and the 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 27 of 40
2 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 20-11654

question is whether a violation of 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(7)(B), misuse 

of a social security number, is a crime involving moral turpitude. 

As Judge Jordan has so ably explained, a crime involving 

moral turpitude falls into one of two buckets. That crime is either 

inherently base, vile, or depraved, or that crime is one involving 

fraud. See Itani v. Ashcroft, 298 F.3d 1213, 1215–16 (11th Cir. 2002). 

Judge Jordan’s opinion highlights that fraud is more than just dishonesty. Common-law fraud means that an individual is being dishonest for the further purpose of gaining something of value or 

causing a detriment to someone else. See Hammerschmidt v. 

United States, 265 U.S. 182, 188, 44 S. Ct. 511, 512 (1924). And such 

purpose must be an element of the statute at issue in order for a 

crime to involve moral turpitude on fraud grounds. See Itani, 298 

F.3d at 1215–16. 

To determine whether a statute involves moral turpitude, 

we apply the categorical approach.1 This means that we look at 

the elements of the crime of conviction, not the facts of the case, 

to determine whether the least egregious conduct under the statute 

1 The categorical approach comes up in two contexts—prior convictions under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”) and moral turpitude in the immigration context. The Supreme Court has often used the same terminology 

and logic in both contexts and applies the ACCA framework to the immigration context. See generally Pereida v. Wilkinson, 141 S. Ct. 754 (2021); Mathis 

v. United States, 579 U.S. 500, 136 S. Ct. 2243 (2016); Nijhawan v. Holder, 557 

U.S. 29, 129 S. Ct. 2294 (2009). For ease of explanation, I have not differentiated between the two contexts in the following discussion. 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 28 of 40
20-11654 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 3

necessarily involves fraud or is inherently base, vile, or depraved.

Typically, this is a straightforward exercise. Where only one crime 

with one set of elements is included in the statute, that is, when the 

statute is indivisible, we look at the essential elements of the crime. 

If the lowest level conduct included in the statute is morally turpitudinous, then we have a crime involving moral turpitude. If the 

lowest level conduct included in the statute is not morally turpitudinous, then we do not have a crime involving moral turpitude. 

I will give an example. Suppose that common-law arson is 

a crime involving moral turpitude.2 And let us say that an individual seeking cancellation of removal has previously been convicted 

of a state statute for arson that contained only the essential elements of arson: the willful and malicious burning of a dwelling 

house of another. Wharton’s Criminal Law § 345 (C. Torcia 14th 

ed. 1980). We can easily line up that state statute with our previous 

determination that common-law arson is a crime involving moral 

turpitude to find that the individual in the example committed a 

crime involving moral turpitude without us ever looking at what 

the individual did. We don’t know if he burned the Jones’ house 

or the Smiths’ house or whether he used fireworks or a match to 

2 For ease of discussion, let us assume that only common-law arson (and in 

my later example, only common-law burglary) and not other variations of arson (or burglary) count as crimes involving moral turpitude. I transposed 

these examples from the ACCA context. Later, it will become apparent that 

this stipulation is necessary to avoid an inquiry into the inherent baseness, vileness, or depravity of each state statute throughout this discussion. 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 29 of 40
4 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 20-11654

start the fire. But he was convicted under the state arson statute, 

which is an indivisible statute that has one set of elements and defines one crime. The least culpable conduct under the statute is 

still common-law arson and is therefore morally turpitudinous. So,

the individual seeking cancellation of removal is pretermitted from 

doing so because he has been convicted of a crime involving moral 

turpitude. That is how indivisible statutes work under the categorical approach.

But what about when the statute of conviction is divisible, 

meaning that some of the conduct encompassed in the statute is 

morally turpitudinous while other conduct encompassed in the 

statute is not? When working with divisible statutes, we must be 

careful to differentiate between divisibility with respect to alternative means of committing a crime listed in a statute and divisibility 

with respect to alternative elements listed in a statute. When alternative means are listed, we still use the categorical approach, just 

like we did above. But, when alternative elements are listed, we 

use the modified categorical approach. In explaining how the modified categorical approach works, I want to lay out the difference 

between alternative elements and alternative means and why different approaches are used between the two for determining 

whether the conduct at issue is morally turpitudinous.

An element is something the prosecution has to prove in order to sustain a conviction. A means is a way in which that crime 

can be committed, and it is not legally significant. So, back to our 

arson example. Arson is still a crime involving moral turpitude. 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 30 of 40
20-11654 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 5

But now, let us say that the state statute for arson does not include 

only the traditional elements of arson. It now reads that arson is 

the willful and malicious or reckless burning of a dwelling house of 

another by using flint, a match, explosives, friction, or any other 

method. And let us say the state’s supreme court has told us that 

the prosecution has to prove which mental state the defendant possessed to get a conviction. Now, we have two different crimes because of the two different mental states encompassed in the statute—one crime that is common-law arson and one that is not. The 

prosecution must prove mental state, so the dichotomy between 

“willful and malicious” and “reckless” is a dichotomy of elements. 

But the enumeration of methods that could be used is a list of alternative means. 

In other words, the prosecution would not have to prove 

that an arsonist used steel wool instead of flint to commit arson 

under that state statute. As long as the prosecution can prove that 

the individual willfully or recklessly burned somebody else’s house, 

the prosecutor has got a conviction, and the prosecutor will not 

have any more of a case if he can show that the defendant used 

steel wool instead of the flint. That’s the essential difference between an element and a means: elements dictate what prosecutors 

must prove; means do not. And the core of the categorical and 

modified categorical approach is that we want to figure out what 

the defendant was actually convicted of—what the prosecutor had 

to prove to gain a conviction. The modified categorical approach 

is simply a method of figuring that out. See Johnson v. United 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 31 of 40
6 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 20-11654

States, 559 U.S. 133, 144, 130 S. Ct. 1265, 1273 (2010) (explaining 

that the modified categorical approach “permits a court to determine which statutory phrase was the basis for the conviction by 

consulting the trial record”). 

With that background, I now turn to the application of the 

modified categorical method. So, in the state statute where arson 

can be committed willfully or recklessly, we have a divisible statute 

with alternative elements, and so we must use the modified categorical approach. Here, we use a limited set of documents, often 

called the Shepard documents,3 in the record to determine whether 

the defendant’s conduct was prosecuted as reckless or instead as 

willful. If the documents reveal that the conduct of which the defendant was convicted was reckless, the defendant will not have 

been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude. If, however, 

the defendant was convicted of willfully burning someone else’s 

house, he will have committed common-law arson, which we have 

determined is a crime involving moral turpitude. That is the modified categorical approach.

We do not use that same approach, however, for determining which of the alternative means of starting the fire was used. 

That is because to do so would tell us nothing about whether the 

defendant had committed a morally turpitudinous act. Arson does 

3 These include the indictment, jury instructions, plea agreement and colloquy, or other judicial record. Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13, 26, 125 S. 

Ct. 1254, 1263 (2005). 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 32 of 40
20-11654 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 7

not require a specific method. So, determining from the charging 

documents which method was actually used would not move the 

ball forward in determining whether the conviction was for a crime 

involving moral turpitude. We would use the categorical approach 

as it applied to the means of commission, meaning that we would 

look solely at the text of the statute itself to determine whether the 

least culpable conduct would be morally turpitudinous, without 

reference to the defendant’s actual conduct.

II. 

Now, it gets more tricky when the line between means and 

elements is fuzzy. See Simpson v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 7 F.4th 1046, 

1055 (11th Cir. 2021) (“[I]t may sometimes be said that one man’s 

means is another man’s elements.”). Let me give another example. 

Suppose that common-law burglary (and only common-law burglary) is a crime involving moral turpitude. Common-law burglary 

is the “unlawful breaking and entering [of] a dwelling at night with 

the intent to commit a felony.” Quarles v. United States, 139 S. Ct. 

1872, 1876 (2019) (citing 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the 

Laws of England 224 (1769)). Now suppose a state statute defined 

burglary as the unlawful breaking and entering into any building, 

structure, or land, water, or air vehicle at night with the intent to 

commit a felony.4 The state statute is broader than common-law 

burglary. The question is whether the statutory alternatives are 

4 My hypothetical statute is similar to the one at issue in Mathis, 136 S. Ct. at 

2246. 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 33 of 40
8 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 20-11654

elements or means. In other words, do we have five different 

crimes, depending on the structure broken into, or do we have one 

crime with one locational element that can be committed in five 

different ways?

If it is five different crimes, we apply the modified categorical approach. If it is one crime with five different means, we apply 

the categorical approach. Under the modified categorical approach, some types of burglary covered under the state statute 

would match with common-law burglary and thus be crimes involving moral turpitude, while others would not. So, violating the 

statute would sometimes be a crime involving moral turpitude, 

and sometimes it would not. Under the categorical approach, the 

least culpable conduct under the statute would be less than common-law burglary—for instance, breaking into a car rather than a 

structure. And that means violating the state statute would never 

be a crime involving moral turpitude. So, you see, that is why it 

matters whether we apply the categorical or the modified categorical approach to a statute. Applying the categorical approach will 

on the whole lead to fewer findings of individuals having committed crimes involving moral turpitude. 

In the case of the broader state burglary statute, the Supreme Court, over a bitter dissent, said that the different ways of 

breaking in were means rather than elements because the state supreme court had defined the listed items as different methods rather than different elements. See Mathis v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 

at 2250. The Court gave us a few rules of thumb to use to 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 34 of 40
20-11654 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 9

determine whether statutory alternatives are means or elements: 

1) see how the state supreme court has defined the elements; 2) see 

if different statutory alternatives carry different penalties because 

different penalties means the listed items are different elements; 3) 

look at the statute itself to see if the statute identifies what a prosecutor must charge as elements; and 4) when all else fails, look at 

the record of conviction solely to see whether the listed items are 

elements. See id. at 2256. Although Mathis was dealing with a state 

burglary statute, we apply the same logic and rules of thumb to 

previous convictions underfederal statutes, with the exception that 

under the first rule of thumb we now look to how the Supreme 

Court and our Circuit have defined the elements, instead of a state 

supreme court’s interpretation. Cf. Nijhawan v. Holder, 557 U.S. 

29, 129 S. Ct. 2294 (2009) (interpreting a federal statute for purposes 

of the categorical approach); Itani, 298 F.3d at 1216 (looking at how 

the federal courts had defined the statute to determine whether the 

felony was a crime of moral turpitude). 

III. 

Now to the present case. The applicant in this case was previously convicted of 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(7)(B).5 The structure of the 

statute is as follows:

5 As the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) explained, the statute is clearly 

divisible as to the three subsections of subsection (7): (7)(A), (7)(B), and (7)(C). 

The more difficult question, explored in this section, is whether subsection (7) 

itself is divisible. 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 35 of 40
10 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 20-11654

(a)IN GENERAL 

 Whoever—

(7) for the purpose of causing an increase in any

payment authorized under this subchapter (or any 

other program financed in whole or in part from Federal funds), or for the purpose of causing a payment 

under this subchapter (or any such other program) to 

be made when no payment is authorized thereunder,

or for the purpose of obtaining (for himself or any 

other person) any payment or any other benefit to 

which he (or such other person) is not entitled, or for 

the purpose of obtaining anything of value from 

any person, or for any other purpose—

(B) with intent to deceive, falsely represents a number to be the social security account number assigned by the Commissioner 

of Social Security to him or to another person, when in fact such number is not the social 

security account number assigned by the 

Commissioner of Social Security to him or to 

such other person.

42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(7)(B). At first glance, we see a list of statutory 

alternatives in subsection (7) starting with the phrase “for the purpose of.” Id.§ 408(a)(7). The question is, are these statutory alternatives elements or means? If the statutory alternatives are elements, then, by my count, we have at least five different crimes, 

and therefore we must use the modified categorical approach. If 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 36 of 40
20-11654 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 11

the statutory alternatives are means, then we have one crime with 

five different methods of commission, and we must use the categorical approach. 

The method we use is important because of how we have 

defined crimes involving moral turpitude. As Judge Jordan rightly 

explains and clarifies, crimes involving moral turpitude are either 

fraud offenses or crimes that are inherently base, vile, or depraved. 

And, as Judge Jordan again rightly explains, the wrinkle in this statute is the “for any other purpose” language at the end of subsection 

(7), which suggests that somebody could violate the statute without obtaining a benefit and therefore without committing fraud in 

the traditional sense.6 So, if we determine the statute is divisible 

and we use the modified categorical approach, we figure out which 

of the purposes the individual used the false social security number 

for, and then we determine whether that specific offense is a crime 

involving moral turpitude. If, however, we decide that the statute 

is indivisible and we apply the categorical approach, then a 

6 For example, in United States v. Perez-Campos, 329 F.3d 1214, 1215 (10th 

Cir. 2003), a defendant was convicted of violating 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(7)(B) 

when he gave a social security number not belonging to him to the jail clerk 

who booked him at Oklahoma County Jail. 329 F.3d at 1215. In that case, the 

defendant was probably misusing someone else’s social security card “for any 

other purpose” under § 408(a)(7)(B), and, regardless of which purpose he used 

the false number to accomplish under the statute, giving a false social security 

number to a jail clerk who asks for a social security number is certainly not 

traditional fraud. 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 37 of 40
12 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 20-11654

violation of 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(7)(B) will never be a crime involving 

moral turpitude on fraud grounds.7

The parties and the Court’s opinion have assumed that the 

categorical approach applies. I think they are right based on our 

precedent, but I want to explain why. If we were trying to determine whether the statutory alternatives were elements or means 

on our own in this case, I think it would be a head scratcher. At 

least to me, it seems like each of the statutory alternatives in subsection (7), some of which may be fraudulent and some of which 

may not be, could be a separate crime that the prosecution would 

have to prove, thereby making the modified categorical approach 

the appropriate method. But we do not have to reinvent the wheel 

here because we can look to the rules of thumb Justice Kagan gave 

us in Mathis. As I explained above, to determine whether statutory 

alternatives are elements or means, our first mode of attack is to 

look at how either the state supreme court (for state statutes) or 

the Supreme Court and our Circuit (for federal statutes) have interpreted the statute at hand. And here that is pretty simple. In

United States v. Harris, we explained that the elements of a violation of § 408(a)(7)(B) are “(1) false representation of a Social Security number, (2) with intent to deceive, (3) for any purpose.” 376 

F.3d 1282, 1291 (11th Cir. 2004). Because we treat purpose as one 

overarching element and the enumerated list in subsection (7) as 

7 I discuss the “inherently base, vile, or depraved” ground for crimes involving 

moral turpitude below. 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 38 of 40
20-11654 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 13

different ways of meeting the purpose requirement, the statutory 

alternatives are means and not elements. So, we apply the categorical approach.

Under the categorical approach, we look at the least culpable conduct under the statute to determine whether the conduct 

meets the standard for a crime involving moral turpitude. For the 

reasons explained above, using a false social security number “for 

any other purpose” does not meet the standard for fraud. So, we 

know that conviction under the statute is not for a crime involving 

moral turpitude on fraud grounds. Remand to the BIA is appropriate so that the BIA can determine whether, in the first instance, 

§ 408(a)(7)(B) describes conduct that is inherently base, vile, or depraved and is thus morally turpitudinous on that ground. Although we have jurisdiction to review the legal question of whether 

a crime involves moral turpitude de novo, I think remand is appropriate in this case to promote the development of BIA case law in 

this area. See Matter of Juan Pablo Aguilar-Mendez, 28 I. & N. Dec. 

262, 266 (BIA 2021) (quoting the Immigration Reform and Control 

Act of 1986 and explaining that the BIA’s “case-by-case determinations [of morally turpitudinous conduct] promote the consistent 

application of the immigration laws nationwide”); see also Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Pub. L. No. 99-603, 

§ 115(1), 100 Stat. 3359, 3384 (explaining that “the immigration 

laws of the United States should be enforced . . . uniformly”). 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 39 of 40
14 TJOFLAT, J., Concurring 20-11654

Because the contours of moral turpitude are hazy at best, remand 

is appropriate for the BIA to map § 408(a)(7)(B) onto the “inherently base, vile, or depraved” framework. 

USCA11 Case: 20-11654 Date Filed: 02/18/2022 Page: 40 of 40