Opinion ID: 202683
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Fontes's Claim

Text: 29 Fontes argues first and most generally that the comparability test somehow does not apply to aliens charged with deportability on the basis of specific aggravated felony grounds. In Sena v. Gonzales, 428 F.3d 50, 53-54 (1st Cir.2005), however, we found that an alien could not obtain a section 212(c) waiver because there was no comparable ground of excludability under section 212(a) of the INA for the aggravated felony ground on which he was found deportable (encouraging or inducing an alien to reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such residence would be in violation of law). Fontes's argument that the comparability test does not apply to specific aggravated felony grounds fails. 3 30 Fontes additionally asserts that his conviction for sexual assault makes him guilty not only of an aggravated felony and crime of violence but also of a crime involving moral turpitude, which is a statutory ground of exclusion, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(I) (2000), and which also was waivable before section 212(c) was repealed. Thus, he contends the waiver authority should be extended to him under St. Cyr and the subsequent regulations. We recently held in Kim that this argument fails because there is no waiver authority for one excluded as an aggravated felon or one who commits a crime of violence. 468 F.3d at 62. Thus, the fact that a different ground of deportation (the crimes of moral turpitude ground) might have been waived if it also had been invoked against him is irrelevant. Id. 31 We also reaffirmed in Kim the Board's earlier ruling in In re Brieva, 23 I. & N. Dec. 766, 772-73 (BIA 2005), that there is no basis for saying that, generally, crimes of moral turpitude and aggravated felonies or crimes of violence are essentially the same category. Kim, 468 F.3d at 63. Aggravated felonies and crimes of violence are both categories of crimes or types of crimes, 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(2000), 18 U.S.C. § 16 (2000); depending on the scope of the phrase moral turpitude, it would include some but not necessarily all of those crimes and would surely encompass others not on the list of defined crimes. As we concluded in Kim, [i]f one followed the approach urged upon us by [the petitioner], it would . . . enlarge the frustration of Congress's own policy preference. Given the possible breadth of the moral turpitude concept, almost anyone could argue that although found deportable for a serious unwaivable crime, waiver authority should be interpolated because the crime was also one of moral turpitude. 468 F.3d at 63 (emphasis in original). 32 Finally, as noted, section 212(c) was part of a scheme that juxtaposed various grounds for exclusion (listed in section 212(a)) with qualified authority of the Attorney General (described in section 212(c)) to waive individual grounds in the case of certain permanent residents who were seeking to reenter the country. Kim, 468 F.3d at 62. According to the Second Circuit's equal protection analysis, any statutory waiver opportunity available to an excludable person must be available to a deportable person. Francis, 532 F.2d at 273. But aggravated felony and crime of violence, although statutory grounds for deportation under specified conditions, were not themselves statutory grounds for exclusion; thus the exclusion statute does not provide authority for waivers corresponding to those grounds. Kim, 468 F.3d at 62. As a result, Fontes does not even arguably present an equal protection claim; Congress has not provided waivers for exclusion on these grounds, so it need not provide waivers for deportation on these grounds. Id. 4 33 We deny the petition for review.