S Ct Denies Cert in Removal Case Based on Criminal Grounds

The Supreme Court denied cert in Rasid v. Gonzales, 2007 U.S. LEXIS 2162 (Feb. 20, 2007) and declined to consider the case of a Pakistani man living in Colorado who is facing deportation because of a fist fight. Haroon Rashid, a U.S. resident for 10 years, has a wife and four American-born minor children. In 2004, he was convicted of simple assault, a misdemeanor in Colorado, for getting into a fight after being taunted about his ethnic background. However, the Tenth Circuit found that the crime was a “crime of violence” and thus an “aggravated felony,” subjecting Rasid to detention and deportation.  See Rashid v. Gonzales, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 20044 (10th Cir. Aug. 3, 2006) (unpublished). Rashid has been detained for several years, first on immigration-related criminal charges involving a family member that the government ultimately dropped, now on the removal proceeding based on the assault.

For a Denver Post story about Rashid’s deportation case, click here.

KJ