Opinion ID: 1194672
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The BIA's Error

Text: Although we have not yet had occasion to determine whether Conn. Gen.Stat. section 53a-103 is divisible, both parties, as well as the IJ and BIA, have adopted the position that the statute is divisible on the grounds that it encompasses offenses that may or may not involve moral turpitude, In re M-, 2 I. & N. Dec. at 723. We thus assume for purposes of this case that the statute is divisible and proceed under the modified categorical approach to examine whether Wala's record of conviction necessarily admits facts establishing the elements of a CIMT. More specifically, because the BIA held in this case that the intent of a permanent taking was necessary to sustain the removability charge, the issue is whether Wala's record of conviction necessarily supports this result. We hold that it does not, and that the BIA erred in deeming Wala removable. In his plea colloquy, Wala admitted to taking two rings, official jewelry, a first union credit card, and two watches from the victim's home. [5] In so doing, Wala actually admitted, Dulal-Whiteway, 501 F.3d at 125, to facts establishing that he was convicted of a burglary with the intent to commit a larceny. Wala did not admit, however, to taking these items with the intent to appropriate them permanently. Wala, moreover, was not charged with committing a permanent taking; the charging document does not specifically name the intended crime associated with his burglary conviction and the prosecutor entered a nolle prosequi for two charges of larceny and one charge of credit card theft. Finally, as described supra, to be convicted of larceny in Connecticut, the statute requires only an intent to deprive another of property or to appropriate the same to himself or a third person, Conn. Gen.Stat. § 53a-119, without regard to whether the taking was permanent or temporary. However improbable, Wala could have been taking the jewelry with the intent to loan it to his girlfriend for one night on the town and then return it. Or, he could have been taking the credit cards with the intent to use them for a one-time identification purpose. The point is that either would have been sufficient to sustain Wala's guilty plea and conviction under Connecticut penal law. Thus, although it may have been reasonable for the BIA to infer that Wala intended permanently to keep the items he admitted taking, the modified categorical approach does not permit the BIA to draw inferences of this kind. We have held that the BIA cannot adjudicate the facts in a criminal case to determine whether, standing alone, they suggest that the petitioner committed a removable offense. See Sui v. INS, 250 F.3d 105, 119 (2d Cir.2001) (emphasizing that the BIA cannot assume the position of factfinder). Because Wala did not admit to, was not charged with, and was not required to plead to a permanent taking in order to be convicted in Connecticut of burglary in the third degree, Wala's guilty plea does not necessarily rest on facts identifying the burglary as a CIMT. See Dulal-Whiteway, 501 F.3d at 129-31. As the Supreme Court explained in Shepard, if the state statute requires no finding of the particular element at issue and there is no charging document that narrows the charge to those limits, the only certainty [in a pleaded case] of [that] finding lies in . . . the defendant's own admissions or accepted findings of fact confirming the factual basis for a valid plea. Shepard, 544 U.S. at 25, 125 S.Ct. 1254. In Wala's case, the record is silent on the removability element, that is, whether he intended to commit a permanent taking. The BIA, by looking to the facts of Wala's conviction to infer such an intent, therefore transgressed the permitted scope of the modified categorical approach. Accordingly, the BIA erred in finding Wala removable under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(2)(A)(i)(I).