Federal Judiciary

As it stands, there exists a three-way circuit split on the question of whether certain deportees who have not temporarily left the country are eligible for [Immigration and Naturalization Act] § 212(c) relief. The BIA and the majority of our sister circuits have adopted the Francis v. INS, 532 F.2d 268, 272 (2d Cir.1976) rule and have applied the categorical approach when dealing with the resulting statutory counterpart test.^FN11

FN11. See, e.g., Gonzalez-Mesias v. Mukasey, 529 F.3d 62, 64-65 (1st Cir.2008); Caroleo v. Gonzales, 476 F.3d 158, 162-63 (3d Cir.2007); Vo v. Gonzales, 482 F.3d 363, 372 (5th Cir.2007); Koussan v. Holder, 556 F.3d 403, 412-13 (6th Cir.2009); Valere v. Gonzales, 473 F.3d 757, 762 (7th Cir.2007); Soriano v. Gonzales, 489 F.3d 909 (8th Cir.2006) (per curiam).

Full post as published by Split Circuits on August 21, 2009 (boomark / email).