Crimes of Moral Turpitude

(B)Foreign.  Pickering states that the same rules apply to foreign convictions as to domestic ones.[1]  This statement, however, was dictum, as to domestic convictions, since Pickering involved a Canadian conviction.  The Full Faith and Credit statute precludes the immigration courts from nullifying a state court order vacating a conviction.  This doctrine does not apply to Canadian or other foreign convictions, only to state convictions, and provides a basis on which Pickering can be distinguished from a case in which a state court has vacated a criminal conviction.  While both federal and state courts in the United States must give full faith and credit to any judgment of a state court empowered to enter the judgment, they need only recognize the judgment of a foreign court to the extent that this recognition comports with principles of judicial comity.[69]  Pickering, however, mistakenly stated that domestic and foreign orders were subject to the same analysis.[70]  Pickering also cites and approves Rodriguez-Ruiz.  

[71] Id. at 624.

[69] Jaffe v. Accredited Surety and Casualty Co., Inc., 294 F.3d 584 (4th Cir. 2002).

[70] Matter of Pickering, 23 I. & N. Dec. at 624 (BIA 2003).