United States Ninth Circuit

In the context of immigration law, a conviction for failure to appear in court in violation of 18 U.S.C. section 3146 qualifies as the generic crime of "obstruction of justice" under 8 U.S.C. section 1101(a)(43)(S) but does not qualify as the generic crime of "failure to appear" under section 1101(a)(43)(T). Also, a petitioner's prior conviction qualifies as an aggravated felony under section 1101(a)(43)(S) only if the petitioner has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of "at least one year."

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/09/2007
• Decided 12/12/2008
• Published 12/12/2008

Judges

• Before:  SIDNEY R. THOMAS, RICHARD C. TALLMAN, and SANDRA S. IKUTA, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Martin R. Guajardo (brief) and Marty Robles (argued), Law Office of Martin R. Guajardo, San Francisco, CA, for petitioner., Carol Dvorkin, San Francisco, CA, for petitioner.


• For Appellees:
  
• Marshall Tamor Golding (brief) and Ann Carroll Varnon (argued), United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Washington, DC, for respondent., David Schor, United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Washington, D.C., for respondent.