First Circuit Victory for Suffolk Law School Immigration Clinic in Crim-Imm Case
Pictured: Virginia Benzan (left) and Kelly Doolittle (right), former Suffolk Immigration Clinic student, at the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals
The First Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a decision that will positively impact noncitizens facing the immigration consequences of crime, as well as criminal defendants facing sentencing enhancements, in Whyte v. Lynch, No. 14-2357 (Dec. 9, 2015). In Whyte, the First Circuit held that third-degree assault under Connecticut law is not a “crime of violence,” and therefore not an aggravated felony under the federal immigration laws. In this case, the immigrant had been a lawful permanent resident since 1981 – for approximately thirty-five years – and has been detained by immigration authorities for nearly four years. Had the Court characterized the conviction as an aggravated felony, Mr. Whyte would have faced automatic removal to Jamaica.
Virginia Benzan, Immigration Clinic Fellow at Suffolk Law School, argued the case before the First Circuit and supervised clinic students who worked on the briefs. Virginia writes: “I am thrilled that these type of simple assault convictions will no longer make non-citizens subject to mandatory detention, removable, and barred from returning to the US. I am also so proud of the herculean effort made by the law students and thankful for all the support from the immigration legal service community.”
Categorical approach guru Sejal Zota of the National Immigration Project contributed to the case’s success by submitting an amicus brief for the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, Boston College Post-Deportation Human Rights Project, Immigrant Defense Project, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild and Political Asylum/Immigration Representation Project.
-JKoh