Breyer delays deportation of legal permanent resident on a midemeanor assault

[BurtWorm]

It seems the incident may have been a bias case, but the immigrant in question is Muslim, so all bets are off. :eyes:


http://www.scotusblog.com/movabletype/archives/2006/12/breyer_delays_d.html

Wednesday, December 06, 2006


Posted by Lyle Denniston at 05:37 PM

Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer on Wednesday delayed the imminent deportation to Pakistan of a man who is a lawful permanent resident of the U.S Harood <sic--the actual name is Haroon> Rashid has lived in the U.S. since 1997, his wife is a naturalized citizen and his four children are American-born citizens. He faces deportation for a conviction under Colorado state law of misdemeanor assault. That grows out of an incident in which he struck a teenager who, he has said, had "ethinically harassed him." (The stay application was Rashid v. Gonzales, 06A557. A copy of the application can be found here.)

Breyer's order delays Rashid's forced removal to Pakistan until after the Supreme Court can act on his pending appeal from a ruling by the Tenth Circuit Court. His petition for review contends that the Circuit Courts are split on whether a misdemeanor assault conviction constitutes an "aggravated felony" involving violence or the threat of violence, for purposes of federal immigration law and its deportation provisions. The petition presents this question: "As a question of law, was legal permanent resident alien Petitioner's conviction of third degree misdemeanor assault an 'aggravated felony' for the purpose of deportation under Section 237-a-2-A-iii of the Immigration and Naturalization Act, 8 USC 1227-a-2-A-iii." (A copy of the body of the petition can be found here; because the petition is being reformatted, it has not yet been assigned a docket number by the Court.)

Although the Tenth Circuit ruled that the Colorado offense of misdemeanor assault is not a crime of violence under state law or under two federal immigration provisions, it nonetheless ruled that, in Rashid's case, it can be treated as a violent felony because he had asserted a self-defense argument in court and, in doing so, had admitted he used force to make his defense.



<Background on the case can be found here.>

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. If he is deported, it means

that the teen who harassed him really won, doesn't it?

[BurtWorm]

2. I'm afraid you're right.

:evilfrown: