Safe Havens

(C)  Application of the Record of Conviction Limitation.  Generally speaking, the immigration and federal courts are limited to the record of conviction in determining whether a given conviction triggers a conviction-based ground of deportation.  The government sometimes claims that this limit has no application to the domestic violence deportation ground; in particular, it claims that it can go outside the record of conviction to establish that the victim had a protected relationship with the defendant.  Some circuits seem to be adopting this position.

            The Ninth Circuit has not adopted this view.  It has held unequivocally that the government may not introduce evidence outside the record of conviction, even by testimony during a removal hearing, to establish that the victim was the defendant’s spouse, for purposes of establishing a domestic violence conviction ground of deportation.  See § 7.154, infra.