Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(F)  Foreign Offenses.  Whether a foreign conviction constitutes an offense involving moral turpitude will be assessed under United States standards.[40]  See § 7.25, supra.

[40] Squires v. INS, 689 F.2d 1276, 1278 (6th Cir. 1982), cert. den., 461 U.S. 905 (1983) ((1) in determining whether foreign criminal conviction triggered deportation, the foreign conviction had to be analogized to an equivalent domestic offense as it existed at time of entry into the United States and not as it existed at time of his conviction, and (2) under circumstances of case, foreign “false pretenses” offense, for which six-month suspended sentence was imposed, could not be analogized to District of Columbia false pretenses statute, but could be analogized to a violation of the District of Columbia bad check statute, as amended after the conviction but before entry to the United States, and thus triggered deportation); McKenzie v. Savoretti, 200 F.2d 546 (5th Cir. 1952); Mercer v. Lence, 96 F.2d 122 (10th Cir.), cert. den., 305 U.S. 611 (1938); Matter of McNaughton, 16 I. & N. Dec. 569 (BIA 1978) (securities fraud); Matter of M, 9 I. & N. Dec. 132 (BIA 1960).