Crimes of Moral Turpitude

(B)  Effective Date Issues. The current statutory bar for particularly serious crimes and aggravated felons applies to all applications for asylum made after April 1, 1997.[374]  The initial statutory aggravated felony bar[375] to asylum was effective only for applications made following November 29, 1990.[376]  The first mandatory PSC bar to asylum was created by regulation, effective October 1, 1990.[377]  The Ninth Circuit held that the regulatory bar[378] could not be applied retroactively to a noncitizen who was convicted prior to the October 1, 1990 effective date of the regulation.[379]

[374] IIRAIRA § 604(c).

[375] Note that this bar only applied to aggravated felonies, without reference to “particularly serious crimes.”

[376] Immigration Act of 1990 § 515(a)(1), adding INA § 208(d), 8 U.S.C. § 1158(d).  Effective date provided at Immigration Act of 1990 § 515(b)(1).

[377] See 8 C.F.R. § 208.13(c)(2)(i)(A) (2002).  Prior to October 1, 1990, conviction of a particularly serious crime was negative discretionary factor, not a mandatory bar.  See Yang v. INS, 79 F.3d 932, 935 (9th Cir. 1996).

[378] 8 C.F.R. § 208.13(c)(2)(i)(D).

[379] Kankamalage v. INS, 335 F.3d 858 (9th Cir. July 8, 2003).  See also Batanic v. INS, 12 F.3d 662 (7th Cir. 1993).