Source: https://nortontooby.com/content/california-witness-dissuasion-plea-offers-immigration-safe-alternative-disposition-especiall
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 11:05:20+00:00

Document:
California Penal Code § 13 6.1 (B) punishes anyone who “attempts to prevent or dissuade another person who has been the victim of a crime or who is witness to a crime” from making a police report, filing a charge and assisting the prosecution, or seeking an arrest. This conviction should not be considered a crime involving moral turpitude. It involves no malice or other culpable mental state. Compare Penal Code § 136.1(a). See People v. Upsher, 155 Cal.App.4th 1311, 1320 (2007). It should not be considered a crime of violence, because it involves no element of force and includes non-violent verbal persuasion. Ibid. Compare Penal Code § 136.1(c). It does not trigger any other conviction-based ground of deportation. The only possible exception is that it might be considered to be an obstruction of justice aggravated felony, under INA § 101(a)(43)(S), 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(S), but only if a sentence of one year or more imprisonment is imposed (whether or not execution is suspended). To protect against this possibility, the client should enter a plea to dissuading someone from filing a police report, a violation of Penal Code § 136.1(b)(1), because that cannot be considered interference with an ongoing judicial proceeding. See Matter of Espinoza-Gonzalez, 22 I. & N. Dec. 889, 892-93 (BIA 1999); Salazar-Luviano v. Mukasey, 551 F.3d 857, 862-63 (9th Cir. 2008). See also Renteria-Morales v. Mukasey, 2008 U.S.App. LEXIS 27382 (9th Cir. Dec. 12, 2008), replacing 532 F.3d 949 (9th Cir. 2008). Failing that, leave the record of conviction vague as to the subdivision (e.g., (1), (2), or (3)) to take advantage of the burden of proof on the government to show deportability and the minimum-conduct rule.

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