Nawaiseh

MEMORANDUM

Fahad Abdel Nawaiseh, a native and citizen of Jordan, became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in March 1991. In March 1998, he pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud aiding and abetting. He was sentenced to *323 three years probation, four months of in-house detention, and ordered to pay $250,380.97 in restitution. As a result, Nawaiseh was placed in removal proceedings where the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”) argued his crimes constituted aggravated felonies so that he was ineligible for asylum or for withholding of removal.

In December 1999, the Immigration Judge (“IJ”) ordered Nawaiseh removed to Jordan because he was ineligible for any type of relief. Regarding the single count of wire fraud aiding and abetting to which Nawaiseh pled guilty, the IJ found there was insufficient evidence that the actual loss to the victim exceeded $10,000. Thus, the conviction failed to constitute an aggravated felony under Immigration and Naturalization Act (“INA”) § 101(a)(43)(M), 8 U.S.C. § 1101 (a)(43)(M). Nonetheless, the IJ found the conspiracy to commit wire fraud constituted an aggravated…