Opinion ID: 3064476
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Surveying the BIA’s case law on “regulatory

Text: offenses” As this Court has consistently explained, CIMTs can be understood as belonging to two basic types: (1) offenses & N. Dec. 615, 618 (B.I.A. 1992), see Maj. Op. at 2644, but that language is merely dicta. The assault statute at issue in Perez-Contreras lacked a knowledge requirement, id. at 619, and so the BIA had no occasion to hold that the offense would have qualified as a CIMT had it required knowledge. In any event, later cases concerning violent crimes confirmed that “knowingly” engaging in prohibited conduct is not the test for a finding of moral turpitude. In the violent crimes context, the BIA usually requires more than knowledge — essentially, recklessness plus. See, e.g., Matter of Fualaau, 21 I. & N. Dec. 475, 478 (B.I.A. 1996) (“In order for an assault . . . to be deemed a crime involving moral turpitude, the element of a reckless state of mind must be coupled with an offense involving the infliction of serious bodily injury.”). Matter of McNaughton, 16 I. & N. Dec. 569, 574 (B.I.A. 1978), which the majority cites next, is a fraud case, and is therefore inapposite; a conviction for fraud must require a showing not of knowledge, but of the specific “intent to defraud,” in order to constitute a CIMT. See infra, note 17. The majority then cites Matter of R-, 6 I. & N. Dec. 772, 773-774 (B.I.A. 1955), Matter of M-, 2 I. & N. Dec. 721, 723 (B.I.A. 1946), and Matter of G-, 1 I &. N. Dec. 403, 404-06 (B.I.A. 1943), see Maj. Op. 2645, all of which involve theft offenses, for which the requisite mens rea appears to be the specific intent to deprive another permanently of his property. See Matter of Jurado-Delgado, 24 I. & N. Dec. 29, 33-34 (B.I.A. 2006) (conviction for retail theft is a CIMT where the statute “requires proof that the person took merchandise offered for sale by a store without paying for it and with the intention of depriving the store owner of the goods” and where it can be presumed that “the taking is with the intention of retaining the merchandise permanently.”); Matter of Salvail, 17 I. & N. Dec. 19, 20 (B.I.A. 1979) (possession of stolen property is a CIMT where the statute “specifically requires knowledge of the stolen nature of the goods”). The majority also cites Matter of AbreuSemino, 12 I. & N. Dec. 775, 777 (B.I.A. 1968), and Matter of P-, 6 I. & N. Dec. 795, 798 (B.I.A. 1955), for the proposition that “moral turpitude normally inheres in the intent.” Maj. Op. at 2644. This statement is unarguably correct, but it says nothing about what level of intent is sufficient to establish turpitude in what sorts of cases. Notably, none of the cases on which the majority relies involve a regulatory offense — which, as shown below, is the category of offense to which aggravated DUI belongs. MARMOLEJO-CAMPOS v. HOLDER 2667 involving “fraud,” and (2) offenses involving conduct that is both (a) “inherently base, vile, or depraved” and (b) “contrary to the [accepted] private and social duties man owes to his fellow men or to society in general.” Navarro-Lopez v. Gonzales, 503 F.3d 1063, 1068 (9th Cir. 2007) (en banc) (Pregerson, J., writing for the majority); accord GaleanaMendoza, 465 F.3d at 1058 (9th Cir. 2006); Carty v. Ashcroft, 395 F.3d 1081, 1083 (9th Cir. 2005). The BIA has never rejected this understanding, see Galeana-Mendoza, 465 F.3d at 1058 n.9, and it has adopted Navarro-Lopez’s typology in recent non-precedential decisions. The BIA looks for different levels of mens rea when considering whether offenses in these two categories are CIMTs. For fraud offenses, the mens rea required to establish moral turpitude is more than mere knowledge of the acts committed; it is the specific intent to defraud.17 For non-fraud offenses involving “base, vile, or depraved” conduct — an ill-defined group which may be further broken down into the subcategories of violent crimes, theft offenses and other crimes against property, sex offenses, drug offenses, and certain offenses against the government — the BIA appears to require a prescribed degree of intent that varies depending upon which subcategory is at issue. As noted above, today’s majority relies on language it finds in a smattering of fraud, theft, and 17 See, e.g., Matter of Balao, 20 I. & N. Dec. 440, 443 (B.I.A. 1992) (conviction for the violation of a statute prohibiting the issuing of worthless checks was not categorically a CIMT, because the statute prohibited only “the ‘knowing’ issuance of bad checks,” rather than “expressly requir[ing] intent to defraud as an element of the crime”); Matter of Serna, 20 I. & N. Dec. 579 (B.I.A. 1992) (conviction for possession of an altered immigration document with knowledge that it was altered, but without proof of any intent to use it unlawfully, is not a CIMT). But see Matter of Tejwani, 24 I. & N. Dec. 97, 98-99 (B.I.A. 2007) (money laundering is a fraud CIMT even without any showing of specific intent, because “[a] person who deliberately takes affirmative steps to conceal or disguise the proceeds of criminal conduct acts in an inherently deceptive manner . . . contrary to accepted moral standards.”). 2668 MARMOLEJO-CAMPOS v. HOLDER violent crime cases to find Lopez-Meza’s holding “reasonable.” See supra, note 16. In doing so, the majority either misunderstands or ignores the fact that the BIA does not follow a single, generally applicable rule as to “intent” across all subcategories of offenses. (Indeed, one could find support for any proposition if one’s search pool includes all of the BIA’s precedential CIMT opinions over the last seven decades.) The better approach, consequently, is to consider what kind of mental state the BIA has required in cases involving the same type of offenses. Lopez-Meza does not assert that the Arizona aggravated DUI statute involves a fraud offense.18 Rather, it views aggravated DUI as belonging to the second, non-fraud category of offenses Navarro-Lopez describes. It holds: We find that a person who drives while under the influence, knowing that he or she is absolutely prohibited from driving, commits a crime so base and so contrary to the currently accepted duties that persons owe to one another and to society in general that it involves moral turpitude. Lopez-Meza, 22 I. & N. Dec. at 1196 (emphases added). This description clearly puts aggravated DUI in the non-fraud cate18 Indeed, Campos’s offense cannot logically be described as a “fraud” offense, because Campos gave no false information to the motor vehicles authorities to obtain a driver’s license — he simply drove without one. In contrast, the BIA’s fraud cases normally involve affirmative misrepresentations of material facts made for the purposes of personal gain. See Matter of P-, 6 I. & N. Dec. 795, 798 (B.I.A. 1955) (making “false or misleading representations in labeling” in violation of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act is a CIMT); Matter of M-, 1 I. & N. Dec. 619 (B.I.A. 1943) (willfully and knowingly making a false statement on a Selective Service questionnaire for the purpose of evading military service, where that statement is material, is a fraud CIMT). See also Beltran-Tirado v. INS, 213 F.3d 1179, 1184 (9th Cir. 2000) (making false attestations on an employment verification form I-9 and using a false Social Security number are mala prohibita but not mala in se, and so are not CIMTs). MARMOLEJO-CAMPOS v. HOLDER 2669 gory, which encompasses offenses involving “base, vile, or depraved” conduct in violation of “social duties.” See Navarro-Lopez, 503 F.3d at 1068. Generally speaking, offenses in the “base, vile or depraved” category will constitute CIMTs only if the BIA finds that they either inherently involve or specifically require a showing of “evil intent.”19 What constitutes “evil intent,” in turn, is offense-specific. Looking in this light at the crime for which Campos was 19 See, e.g., Matter of Solon, 24 I. & N. Dec. 239, 241 (B.I.A. 2007) (“Offenses characterized as ‘simple assaults’ are generally not considered to be crimes involving moral turpitude. This is so because they require general intent only and may be committed without the evil intent, depraved or vicious motive, or corrupt mind associated with moral turpitude.”) (internal citation omitted); Matter of Khourn, 21 I. & N. Dec. 1041, 1045-46 (B.I.A. 1997) (possession with the intent to distribute cocaine is a CIMT; the intent to distribute involves “evil intent”); Matter of B-, 5 I & N Dec. 538, 540-41 (B.I.A. 1953) (a simple assault committed “knowingly” upon a prison guard involved no evil intent and so was not a CIMT); Matter of S-C-, 3 I. & N. Dec. 350, 353 (B.I.A. 1949) (state misprision of felony offense is not a CIMT because “[t]o constitute this offense there must be mere knowledge of the offense, and not [necessarily] an[y] assent or encouragement . . . . A conviction could be had[, therefore,] . . . without evil intent. . . . [S]ince the statute does not require an evil or corrupt intent, it is concluded that the crime is not one involving moral turpitude.”) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted); Matter of J-, 2 I. & N. Dec. 99, 102 (B.I.A. 1944) (“All crimes violate some laws; all deliberate crimes involve the intent to do so. Congress could not have meant to make the willfulness of the act a test; it added as a condition that it must itself be shamefully immoral.”). See also Fernandez-Ruiz v. Gonzales, 468 F.3d 1159, 1165-66 (9th Cir. 2006) (discussing the requirement that a crime involve a showing of “ ‘willfulness’ or ‘evil intent’ ” to be classified as a CIMT, as opposed to “general intent” or “reckless[ness]”); Notash v. Gonzales, 427 F.3d 693, 698 (9th Cir. 2005) (an act done deliberately and with knowledge does not necessarily involve “evil intent” for CIMT purposes); Goldeshtein v. INS, 8 F.3d 645, 648 (9th Cir. 1993) (rejecting the argument that “evil intent exists if a conviction requires proof that a defendant did a forbidden act ‘willfully,’ ” where “willfully” was defined to mean “deliberately and with knowledge.”). 2670 MARMOLEJO-CAMPOS v. HOLDER convicted, it is apparent that it involves two component unlawful acts: (1) simple DUI, and (2) driving on a suspended license. Simple DUI, as Lopez-Meza acknowledges, is indisputably a “regulatory offense,” Lopez-Meza, 22 I. & N. Dec. at 1194; accord Matter of Torres-Varela, 23 I. & N. Dec. 78 (B.I.A. 2001) (en banc), and so lacks any “evil intent” element. Driving without a valid license, too, can only be described as a regulatory offense, for it involves the lack of permission to do something that would otherwise be permissible.20 My review of the BIA’s precedential case law over the past seven decades shows that the BIA consistently declines to characterize purely regulatory offenses as CIMTs. In its own words, the BIA has “many times held that the violation of a regulatory, or licensing, or revenue provision of a statute is not a crime involving moral turpitude.” Abreu-Semino, 12 I. & N. Dec. at 776. Evil intent simply is not an essential aspect of such a regulatory violation, even if the violation is a knowing one, and so such violations are not CIMTs. For example, in Matter of H-, 1 I. & N. Dec. 394 (B.I.A. 1943), the BIA held that an alien’s violation of a federal statute requiring liquor retailers to pay a tax to operate their businesses was not a CIMT: 20 Neither Lopez-Meza nor any other precedential BIA decision classifies the offense of driving without a valid license as a “regulatory” (or any other kind of) offense. Nor has the BIA ever considered in a precedential decision whether the possession or use of a falsified driver’s license is a CIMT. But see Montero-Ubri v. INS, 229 F.3d 319, 321 (1st Cir. 2000) (affirming BIA’s non-precedential decision that “using” a falsified driver’s license was a CIMT, because the “attempt at deceit is inherent in this act”); id. at 320 (stating incorrectly that “[t]he BIA has held [in Serna] that use of a fraudulent driver’s license is a crime of moral turpitude,” when in fact, Serna involved a falsified immigration document, not a driver’s license, and it held that possession of such documents was not a CIMT); Zaitona v. INS, 9 F.3d 432 (6th Cir. 1993) (affirming BIA’s nonprecedential decision that knowingly using a false name and date of birth to obtain a driver’s license was a CIMT). MARMOLEJO-CAMPOS v. HOLDER 2671 The crime consists . . . in merely failing to register, pay a tax, and comply with certain regulations of the Internal Revenue Commissioner . . . . [We know of] [n]o case . . . which holds that the violation of a revenue or licensing statute involves moral turpitude. The fact that the thing may be done, providing a tax is paid to the Government, indicates that the act itself does not involve moral turpitude. Id. at 395 (quoting United States ex rel. Andreacchi v. Curran, 38 F.2d 498 (S.D.N.Y. 1926)) (internal quotation marks omitted). The BIA recognized that the respondent had been convicted of “unlawfully and knowingly carrying on the business of a retail liquor dealer without having paid the special tax as required.” Id. at 395-96 (emphasis added). Still, the presence of a “knowing[ ]” scienter requirement did not matter to the BIA’s analysis; even a knowing failure to conform to a regulatory requirement, apparently, could not demonstrate a sufficiently culpable state of mind to indicate moral turpitude. Similarly, in Matter of G-, 7 I. & N. Dec. 114 (B.I.A. 1956), the BIA held that a conviction for the “possession and transportation of distilled spirits without tax stamps affixed thereto” in violation of “licensing and regulating provisions of the Internal Revenue Code” was not a CIMT, because the “violation of statutes which merely license or regulate and impose criminal liability without regard to evil intent do not involve moral turpitude.” Id. at 115, 118 (emphasis added). Even a knowing violation of the tax statute, then, would not be enough to transform a regulatory offense into a CIMT. Accord Matter of J-, 2 I. & N. Dec. 99, 104 (B.I.A. 1944) (holding that a conviction under a federal statute prohibiting the sale of alcohol to Native Americans was not a CIMT because “[r]egulatory enactments of this nature do not create crimes involving moral turpitude.”); Matter of V-, 1 I. & N. Dec. 293, 294 (B.I.A. 1942) (holding that a conviction under the federal Narcotic Drugs Import and Export Act of 1909, 2672 MARMOLEJO-CAMPOS v. HOLDER which penalized “knowingly importing or participating in the importation of narcotic drugs,” was not a CIMT because the Act “is a regulatory act and that the violation of it is therefore not a crime involving moral turpitude”); Matter of G-, 1 I. & N. Dec. 59, 62 (B.I.A. 1941) (holding that gambling in violation of New York’s gaming law was a regulatory offense and so not a CIMT). The lack of a sufficiently evil intent also played the decisive role in Goldeshtein v. INS, 8 F.3d 645 (9th Cir. 1993), where this Court held that the regulatory offense of “willfully” structuring financial deposits in order to prevent a bank from filing currency reports in violation of federal law is not a CIMT, because “evil intent” — as opposed to willfulness or knowledge that the conduct is unlawful — is not an element of the crime. Id. at 648. The BIA recently adopted Goldeshtein as its rule nationwide in Matter of L-V-C-, 22 I. & N. Dec. 594, 603 (B.I.A. 1999), holding that a violation of the structuring statute involves “no per se morally reprehensible conduct.” In short, in a body of case law riddled with inconsistencies, the rule that regulatory offenses are simply not CIMTs — even if committed “knowingly” — appears to be one of the BIA’s more stable principles. 3. Lopez-Meza’s departure from the BIA’s regulatory offense precedents Lopez-Meza acknowledges that there exists a “general rule” that regulatory offenses do not constitute CIMTs. LopezMeza, 22 I. & N. Dec. at 1193. But it departs from this rule, reasoning that an individual who drives under the influence in violation of . . . [A.R.S.] section 28-1383(A)(1) does so with the knowledge that he or she should not be driving under any circumstances. We find that a person MARMOLEJO-CAMPOS v. HOLDER 2673 who drives while under the influence, knowing that he or she is absolutely prohibited from driving, commits a crime so base and so contrary to the currently accepted duties that persons owe to one another and to society in general that it involves moral turpitude. Id. at 1195-96. This purported explanation is a non-explanation — an ipse dixit or “because I said so” edict. One can, perhaps, read into the BIA’s non-explanation the implication that certain offenses are so “base, vile, or depraved” that an evil intent, even if not an explicit requirement for conviction under the statute, is inherent in the act. But the BIA has never given any particularized content to the phrase “base, vile, or depraved” other than to hold that some offenses are and others are not. This is why, as the majority explains, we do not defer to the BIA’s use of general descriptive phrases like “base, vile, or depraved, [and] contrary to . . . the duties owed between man and man” — because deferring to a contentless phrase would “ha[ve] no practical significance.” See Maj. Op. at 2634-35 (quoting Galeana-Mendoza, 465 F.3d at 1058 n.9). Similarly, Lopez-Meza’s purported explanation provides no way to figure out when (or by what logic) an offense is sufficiently “base, vile, and depraved” that evil intent is implicit in the act.21 What we do know is that the BIA and this Court 21 The answer to this question cannot depend upon the seriousness of the breach or the severity of the harm caused, for the BIA has held that neither factor can compensate for the lack of mens rea otherwise required to transform an offense into a CIMT. See Abreu-Semino, 12 I. & N. Dec. at 777 (holding, in the drug possession context, that “crimes in which evil intent is not an element, no matter how serious the act or harmful the consequences, do not involve moral turpitude.”); Matter of Solon, 24 I. & N. Dec. 239, 242 (B.I.A. 2007) (explaining, in the context of assault crimes, that “as the level of conscious behavior decreases, i.e., from intentional to reckless conduct, more serious resulting harm is required in order to find that the crime involves moral turpitude. [But] where no conscious behavior is required, there can be no finding of moral turpitude, regardless of the resulting harm.”). 2674 MARMOLEJO-CAMPOS v. HOLDER have in practice limited the concept of “implicitly evil intent” to fraud,22 sex offenses,23 and drug trafficking offenses.24 Lopez-Meza provides no reasons why a regulatory DUI offense belongs in the same camp. 22 See Matter of Flores, 17 I. & N. Dec. 225, 230 (B.I.A. 1980) (“[T]he crime of uttering or selling false or counterfeit paper relating to registry of aliens with knowledge of their counterfeit nature inherently involves a deliberate deception of the government and an impairment of its lawful functions. Thus, fraudulent conduct is implicit in the statute.”); accord Notash v. Gonzales, 427 F.3d 693, 698 (9th Cir. 2005) (“[E]ven if intent to defraud is not explicit in the statutory definition, a [fraud] crime nevertheless may involve moral turpitude if such intent is implicit in the nature of the crime.”) (internal citations, quotation marks, and alterations omitted). 23 See Matter of Dingena, 11 I. & N. Dec. 723, 727-28 (B.I.A. 1966) (holding that statutory rape is a CIMT, despite the lack of a scienter requirement); but see Quintero-Salazar v. Keisler, 506 F.3d 688, 692 (9th Cir. 2007) (holding that statutory rape under Cal. Penal Code § 261.5(d) is not categorically a CIMT). See also Matter of Tobar-Lobo, 24 I. & N. Dec. 143, 146-47 (B.I.A. 2007) (holding that a convicted sex offender’s failure to register in violation of Cal. Penal Code § 290(g)(1) was a CIMT, even if the failure was purely inadvertent, because the failure to abide by the registration requirement is so base and depraved that evil intent is inherent in the act). Although Tobar-Lobo involved a regulatory registration requirement, it is best understood as a sex-related offense case, not a regulatory offense case, as it was evidently the underlying sex offense and not the failure to register that the BIA found “reprehensible.” See Plasencia-Ayala v. Mukasey, 516 F.3d 738, 748-49 (9th Cir. 2008). At any rate, Tobar-Lobo has been superseded in this Circuit by Plasencia-Ayala. See id. at 746-49 (holding that failure to register as a sex offender under Nev. Rev. Stat. § 179D.550 is not a CIMT, because the statute is “regulatory . . . in nature” and “lacks the requisite element of willfulness or evil intent”). Most recently, the Attorney General held that “convictions obtained under statutes that limit convictions to defendants who knew, or reasonably should have known, that their intentional sexual acts were directed at children categorically should be treated as convictions for crimes involving moral turpitude.” Silva-Trevino, 24 I. & N. Dec. at 707. 24 See Matter of Khourn, 21 I. & N. Dec. at 1047 (“an evil intent is inherent in the crime of distribution of a controlled substance under 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1).”). MARMOLEJO-CAMPOS v. HOLDER 2675 Indeed, to the extent Lopez-Meza can be read to hold that drunk driving on a suspended license is so base, vile, or depraved that evil intent is somehow inherent in the act, I can find no reasons in the BIA’s precedential CIMT cases — or in logic — why that should be so. Certainly, where a nonfraud offense is purely regulatory, it cannot “inherently” exhibit an evil intent. After all, that is the very definition of a crime that is malum prohibitum: But for the statutory prohibition, the act would not be wrongful.25 If any aspect of Campos’s conduct could be characterized as morally wrongful, it would be driving while intoxicated — not driving on a suspended license. But the BIA has unequivocally acknowledged that driving while intoxicated is not turpitudinous, see LopezMeza, 22 I. & N. Dec. at 1194,26 and so, necessarily, does not inherently demonstrate an evil state of mind. In fact, the BIA has held that even a third conviction for drunk driving — another variety of “aggravated” DUI under the same Arizona statute at issue here — is not a CIMT. Matter of Torres-Varela, 23 I. & N. Dec. 78 (B.I.A. 2001) (en