Marco Antonio Lara-Cazares v. Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General

Marco Lara-Cazares is a permanent resident of the United States whom an Immigration Judge ordered removed from the country on the ground that he had been convicted of a “crime of violence” within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 16 . His crime, as defined by the State of California, was gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. The Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed the removal order, and Lara-Cazares petitions for review. We grant his petition and reverse because we conclude that, under the principles announced in the recent Supreme Court decision of Leocal v. Ashcroft, — U.S.-, 125 S.Ct. 377 , 160 L.Ed.2d 271 (2004), the crime of which Lara-Cazares was convicted does not qualify as a “crime of violence.”

I

Lara-Cazares is a native and citizen of Mexico who became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in January, 1988. In June of 1998, the State of California convicted him of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. Cal. Penal Code § 191.5 (a). He received a total sentence of eight years in prison. The government initiated removal proceedings, arguing that Lara-Cazares’s conviction qualified as an aggravated felony because it was a crime of violence. See 8…