Alvaro Palafox Grageda v. U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service

We must decide whether spousal abuse is a crime of moral turpitude upon the basis of which an alien can be deported.

I

Petitioner Alvaro Palafox Grageda seeks reversal of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) affirmance of the Immigration Judge’s (“U”) deportation order under section 241(a)(4) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1251 (a)(4), which allows for deportation of an alien who has committed a crime of moral turpitude within five years of entry into the United States.

Grageda is a Mexican citizen and legal resident of the United States. On June 4, 1986, he was convicted in California state court of violating California Penal Code § 273.5(a), which makes the willful infliction of injury upon a spouse a felony. The court sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment, and the INS instituted deportation proceedings.

In May 1988, the IJ granted Grageda’s first request for continuance of deportation proceedings so that he could prepare his case. When the deportation hearing reconvened in June 1988, Grageda asked for another continuance because he had a petition for writ of error coram nobis pending before the state court, which could expunge his conviction…