Tijani

Opinion by Judge NOONAN; Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge TASHIMA; Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge CALLAHAN.

Monsuru Olasumbo Tijani, a native and citizen of Nigeria, petitions for a review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (the BIA), affirming a decision by an immigration judge ordering his removal and denying him asylum. Central to the case is the place of credit in our economy. To the unsophisticated and sometimes to the sophisticate, the nature of credit is a mystery. It is not animal, mineral or vegetable. It is not real property. It is not a chattel. It is not money. Yet it is not a vapor. The one who uses it becomes a debtor, but becomes a debtor empowered to acquire wealth. The one who grants it, the creditor, puts his own wealth at risk.

Credit comes into existence through confidence — confidence that one human being may rely on the representations of another human being. On this utterly unmechanical, uniquely human understanding, a credit economy is formed and wealth is created. To exploit, pervert and destroy the confidence that creates credit is a vicious act. The abuse of the distinctively human capacities to reason…

concurring in part and dissenting in part:

Because the majority employs an unauthorized non-categorical mode of analysis in concluding that the petitioner was convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude (“CIMT”), I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion, except for the section *656 entitled Relief, commencing at Maj. op. 655.

In open defiance of our recent en banc holding in Marmolejo-Campos v. Holder, 558 F.3d 903, 911 (9th Cir.2009) (en banc), that the determination of whether a crime is a CIMT is committed to the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”), the majority refuses to grant the BIA’s published, precedential decision that the crime involved here is not a CIMT the deference to which it is entitled and, instead, makes its own free-wheeling determination that the crime involved is a CIMT. It not only ignores the BIA’s precedential decision, but fails to adhere to the categorical-approach analysis of Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575 , 110 S.Ct. 2143 , 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990). It ignores the accepted elements of the offense, concocts its own version of what offenses the crime categorically includes, and pays no attention to the state courts’ interpretation of…

concurring and dissenting:

Monsuro Olasumbo Tijani, a native and citizen of Nigeria, has been convicted on four separate occasions for crimes of dishonesty and financial fraud: in 1986 for perjury, in 1987 for passing fraudulent checks, in 1991 for providing false information to obtain credit cards in violation of California Penal Code § 532, and in 1999 on twelve counts of again violating § 532(a)(1) by providing false information to obtain credit cards and using the cards to obtain goods. The government, most reasonably, seeks to remove Tijani to Nigeria. I would affirm the decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) to deny Tijani relief.

I agree with Judge Noonan that Tijani was convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude. 1 I also agree, albeit for slightly different reasons than expressed by Judge Noonan, that our opinion in Marmolejo-Campos v. Holder, 558 F.3d 903 (9th Cir.2009) (en banc) does not require that we direct the BIA to adhere to its decision in In re Kinney, 10 I & N Dec. 548 (1964).

However, I do not agree that because the Immigration Judge (“IJ”) may not have explicitly stated that Tijani was not credible, Tijani must be presumed to be…