Valdez-Camacho v. Ashcroft, 110 Fed.Appx. 808, 2004 WL 2203948 (9th Cir. Sept. 29, 2004) (unpublished) (California conviction of violating Penal Code 261.5(c), which criminalizes sex with minors who are three years younger than the perpetrator, may not constitute a sexual abuse of a minor aggravated felony conviction under the categorical analysis, since the victim might be only one day younger than 18 years of age: "Even assuming California Penal Code 261.5(c) is overly broad and fails the categorical test, Valdez-Camacho's conviction nonetheless constitutes an aggravated felony under a modified categorical approach [since complaint to which plea was entered established victim's age as 15, which constitutes sexual abuse of a minor under previous decisions].").      The court in Valdez-Camacho used the modified categorical analysis, and considered information from the record of conviction to find the victims were age 15 or younger and the defendants more than a few years older.       Criminal defense counsel should continue indefinitely to treat statutory rape even of an older minor as sexual abuse of a minor and seek an alternate disposition, such as false imprisonment, under Penal Code 236 (without violence or menace), battery, under Penal Code 243(a), annoying or molesting a child (requires registration as a sex offender), under Penal Code 646.7(a), or attempt to persuade someone not to file a police report (a strike), under Penal Code 136.1(b).  See Chart and "Note: Safer Pleas" at www.ilrc.org/Cal_DIP_Chart_by_section.pdf.  If there is a statutory rape conviction, there may be some benefit in amending the charge so the record of conviction does not show the age of the victim if the victim is under age 16.      Immigration counsel may continue to raise the issue and attempt to distinguish Granbois at the Ninth Circuit, for example because it is based on an interpretation of the USSG - but at the same time should pursue post-conviction relief to eliminate the conviction on a ground of legal invalidity.  If the victim was 16 or 17, or where the record of conviction did not show the age of the victim, Granbois and similar cases do not necessarily force a conclusion that the conviction is an aggravated felony.      Even if the conviction is an aggravated felony, it might not bar adjustment of status based on a family visa petition.  Because there is no "aggravated felony" ground of inadmissibility, the conviction causes inadmissibility only as a crime involving moral turpitude.  A misdemeanor statutory rape conviction might come within the petty offense exception or, if the person was not a permanent resident at time of conviction and meets other requirements, inadmissibility on account of this conviction might be waived under INA 212(h). Thanks to Kathy Brady for this information.