Gonzalez-Leyton

MEMORANDUM

Manuel Waldo Gonzalez-Leyton’s (“Gonzalez-Leyton”), a native and citizen of Nicaragua admitted to the United States in December 2001, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”)’s decision finding him removable and ineligible for cancellation of removal. We grant his petition and remand to the BIA for further proceedings consistent with this memorandum.

Following a plea of nolo contendere, Gonzalez-Leyton was convicted of unlawfully exhibiting, drawing, and using a deadly weapon in a fight and quarrel in violation of California Penal Code section 417(a)(1) with a special gang-related allegation under California Penal Code section 186.22(d), and sentenced to two years in prison. Section 417(a)(1) punishes any person “who, except in self-defense, in the presence of any other person, draws or exhibits any deadly weapon whatsoever, other than a firearm, in a rude, angry or threatening manner, or who in any manner, unlawfully uses a deadly weapon other than a firearm in any fight or quarrel,” while section 186.22(d) provides for higher alternate penalties where a person commits a crime “for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with,…