Court Opinion

ID: 9484454
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:54:09.141883+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:50:15.470514
License: Public Domain

NATHANIEL R. JONES, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
The decision reached by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA” or “Board”) in this case troubles me because it conflicts with my conception of fairness. Simply put, I am troubled by the determination of the Board which permits the deportation of Veronica Craddock, a person who has been a resident of this country for thirty of the thirty-three years she has been alive. Her formative years as well as her adult years have been spent in this country. Admittedly, her time spent committing crimes was spent in this country; however, so was her time spent as an abused child and a drug-addicted adult. In short, for all relevant purposes, save one — her legal citizenship — the record indicates that the United States is “her” country. Furthermore, I am troubled by a result which would allow the deportation of Crad-dock, a person who has young children who are American citizens. This deportation will cause severe hardship to Craddock’s extended family residing in the United States, and most importantly, to the children. I do not suggest that those favorable equities should automatically cancel out Craddock’s negative equities, including her past criminal activity. Indeed, I recognize that Congress has established laws which make deportation based on such negative equities legal and I acknowledge that the Board has followed those laws in good faith. However, merely because the deportation is legal does not necessarily make it equitable. As a result, under my notion of fairness, I find it somewhat unforgiving and unfair to hold that Craddock’s criminal activity should overshadow the tre*1180mendous hardship and damage that will be done to Craddock and her children and family by deporting her.
Notwithstanding my interpretation of fairness, I agree that, as Judge Guy has indicated, “[t]he only way we could reverse the BIA under these circumstances is simply to usurp its function and substitute our judgment for that of the Board. This we cannot do.” Craddock v. INS, 997 F.2d 1176, 1179 (6th Cir.1993). Therefore, I concur in the judgment of the court.