(A)  Investigating United States Citizenship.  A person who is a U.S. citizen or national may not be deported or subjected to other adverse immigration consequences, unless the citizenship is first revoked or lost.  See § 4.5, supra.  Deportation of someone who is currently a United States citizen is unconstitutional, no matter what.[19]

 

It is critical to ask each client whether s/he is a U.S. citizen or U.S. national.  If you have a client with a name like Michael Jackson who speaks perfect colloquial American English and appears fully Caucasian, he may still turn out to be a citizen of Canada who has lived here since he was two years old and who is a Lawful Permanent Resident.  There is absolutely no way to learn of the great immigration jeopardy he is in without asking him his immigration status.

[19] Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86 (1957) (deportation of a United States citizen violates the Eighth Amendment); Ng Fung Ho v. White, 259 U.S. 276 (1922); Fierro v. INS, 66 F.Supp.2d 229, 231 (D. Mass. 1999) (“The INS has no discretion to execute removal orders against United States citizens.”).

Eleventh Circuit

AGGRAVATED FELONY " THEFT " SHOPLIFTING
Ramos v. U.S. Attorney General, ___ F.3d ___, 2013 WL 599552 (11th Cir. Feb. 19, 2013) (Georgia conviction of shoplifting, in violation of Georgia Code 16"8"14(a)(1) [theft has two alternative intent elements: the intent of appropriating merchandise to his own use without paying for the same or to deprive the owner of possession thereof or of the value thereof, in whole or in part ...], is not categorically an aggravated felony theft offense, for purposes of deportability, because it can be committed with mere intent to appropriate, which falls outside the generic definition of aggravated felony theft); following Jaggernauth v. U.S. Attorney General, 432 F.3d 1346 (11th Cir. 2005) (a theft statute that included two disjunctive intent requirements"an intent to deprive and an intent to appropriate"was divisible and did not categorically constitute an aggravated felony theft offense).

AGGRAVATED FELONY " THEFT OFFENSE " GENERIC DEFINITION
Ramos v. U.S. Attorney General, ___ F.3d ___, ___, 2013 WL 599552 (11th Cir. Feb. 19, 2013) (an aggravated felony theft offense, under INA 101(a)(43)(G), 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(43)(G), is defined as: the taking of property ... with the criminal intent to deprive the owner of rights and benefits of ownership, even if such deprivation is less than total or permanent.); quoting Gonzales v. Duenas"Alvarez, 549 U.S. 183, 189, 127 S.Ct. 815, 819"20, 166 L.Ed.2d 683 (2007).