Juan Vega-Cuevas v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Juan Carlos Vega-Cuevas petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’s dismissal of his appeal, in which it concluded that Vega-Cuevas’s conviction for manufacture of marijuana under Or. Rev.Stat. § 475.856 is categorically an aggravated felony drug trafficking crime because the same conduct constitutes a felony under the federal Controlled Substances Act.

A state conviction will constitute a drug-trafficking aggravated felony if it either (1) includes an element of illicit trafficking, or (2) is a crime punishable as a felony under the federal Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C. § 801 et. seq. Rendon v. Mukasey, 520 F.3d 967, 974 (9th Cir.2008). Vega-Cuevas argues that his conviction is not an aggravated felony under the second prong, because § 475.856 is not a categorical match to the federal statute. Vega-Cuevas argues that § 475.856 is broader, because Oregon’s definition of “manufacture” includes the term “conversion,” while the federal statute does not, though the two definitions are otherwise substantially identical. Or.Rev.Stat. § 475.005(15); compare 21 U.S.C. § 802 (15). Vega-Cuevas likewise argues that Oregon’s definition of marijuana is…