Opinion ID: 202431
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Berhe's petition

Text: 8 Berhe was born in 1978 in a city in Ethiopia, which is now a part of Eritrea. His birth mother gave him up for adoption during the Ethiopian civil war and his adoptive parents thereafter took him to Sudan. Four years later, in 1987, he and his adoptive parents were admitted to the United States as refugees. In 1988, Berhe's status was adjusted to lawful permanent resident. Since his admission to the United States, Berhe has never returned to Eritrea. Nor has he had any contact with any surviving family members there. 9 In 1996, Berhe was convicted in a Massachusetts municipal court for simple possession of crack cocaine under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 94C, § 34, and for assault and battery of a police officer, and was sentenced to six months' probation. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to simple possession of crack cocaine in Massachusetts state district court, and received a six-month suspended sentence. In prosecuting the 2003 offense, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts did not charge Berhe with a prior conviction because it did not seek a recidivism-based sentence enhancement. See Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, § 11A (providing that if the government seeks enhanced penalties because of a prior conviction, the defendant shall be entitled to a trial by jury of the issue of conviction of a prior offense). Both the 1996 conviction and the 2003 conviction were misdemeanors under Massachusetts law. See Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 274, § 1 (A crime punishable by death or imprisonment in the state prison is a felony. All other crimes are misdemeanors.). 10 In 2004, DHS initiated removal proceedings against Berhe, charging that he was removable because of his 2003 conviction for simple possession of crack cocaine. See INA § 237(a)(2)(B)(i), 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i) (providing that any alien convicted of violating a law relating to a controlled substance ... is deportable). Berhe conceded removability, but submitted applications seeking cancellation of removal, asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Berhe's asylum application asserted that he would be persecuted on account of his religion were he returned to Eritrea. 11 DHS subsequently filed a supplemental charge of removability contending that Berhe's 2003 conviction was for an aggravated felony, see id. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii) (Any alien who is convicted of an aggravated felony . . . is deportable.). DHS argued that because Berhe had a prior drug conviction, his 2003 misdemeanor simple possession conviction was an aggravated felony under the INA. See id. § 1101(a)(43)(B). As a result, DHS argued, Berhe was statutorily ineligible for the discretionary relief of asylum or cancellation of removal. See id. §§ 1158(b)(2)(A)(ii), 1158(b)(2)(B)(i), 1229b(a)(3). DHS also argued that an aggravated felony is presumptively a particularly serious crime, which rendered Berhe ineligible for withholding of removal. See id. § 1231(b)(3)(B)(ii). 12 Following a hearing, an immigration judge found Berhe removable on the basis of the original controlled substance charge, but not on the aggravated felony charge. The judge concluded that, because Berhe's 2003 conviction was classified by Massachusetts law as a misdemeanor, it could not be considered an aggravated felony. The judge therefore evaluated Berhe's claims for relief and granted him asylum, withholding of removal, and cancellation of removal, but denied relief under the CAT. DHS appealed to the Board and Berhe filed a cross-appeal from the denial of his CAT claim. 13 The Board sustained DHS's appeal. The Board stated that it would apply the First Circuit's approach for determining whether the state conviction is an aggravated felony. The Board found that Berhe's 2003 offense was punishable under federal law as a felony because his prior drug possession offense converted his subsequent possession conviction into a felony. Because Berhe had been convicted of an aggravated felony, the Board found him ineligible for asylum or cancellation of removal and therefore did not reach the merits of those claims. The Board also reversed the immigration judge's grant of withholding of removal on the ground that Berhe had not shown a clear probability of persecution on account of any protected ground, and dismissed Berhe's cross-appeal as untimely. The Board ordered Berhe removed to Eritrea.