Manuel Raya-Moreno v. Eric Holder, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Petitioner Manuel Raya-Moreno, a native and citizen of Mexico, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeal’s (“BIA”) order dismissing his appeal from an immigration judge’s removal order. The BIA found Raya-Moreno removable under INA § 237(a)(2)(A)(ii), 8 U.S.C. § 1227 (a)(2)(A)(ii) on the basis of convictions for two crimes it held categorically involved moral turpitude: stalking under California Penal Code § 646.9(a) and sexual battery under California Penal Code § 243.4(a). Raya-Moreno contests only the BIA’s conclusion that § 646.9(a) is categorically a crime involving moral turpitude. He also contends that the BIA incorrectly denied his requests for cancellation of removal under INA § 240A(a), 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a) and waiver of inadmissibility under former INA § 212(c), 8 U.S.C. § 1182 (c) (1994) (repealed 1996).

Raya-Moreno was convicted of stalking in 1995 under California Penal Code § 646.9(a), which provided, in relevant part:

The statute defined the term “harass” to be “a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person that seriously alarms, annoys, torments, or terrorizes the person, and that serves no legitimate purpose.”…