Matter of Chairez, 26 I&N Dec. 478 (BIA 2015) (Chairez II) (Chairez Is interpretation of the divisibility standard used in the modified categorical analysis " adopting the Supreme Courts view in Descamps v. United States, 133 S. Ct. 2276 (2013), will only apply in circuits that have not explained how they understand divisibility after Descamps was decided; therefore, the test for when a statute is divisible will have to be litigated on a circuit-by-circuit basis); clarifying Matter of Chairez, 26 I&N Dec. 349 (BIA 2014) (Chairez I) (a statute defining a criminal offense is divisible only if (1) it lists multiple discrete offenses as enumerated alternatives or defines a single offense by reference to disjunctive sets of elements, more than one combination of which could support a conviction; and (2) at least one, but not all, of those listed offenses or combinations of disjunctive elements is a categorical match to the relevant generic standard; an element is facts that a jury has to find unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt. And it distinguished alternate means to commit an offense, which do not require jury unanimity).

NOTE: The BIA determined that since no deference is owed under Chevron to divisibility analysis, the Immigration Judge must follow the interpretation of Descamps applied within the Tenth Circuit under United States v. Trent, 767 F.3d 1046 (10th Cir. 2014):

In Trent, the Tenth Circuit acknowledged that a statute is divisible under Descamps only if it is broken down into alternative elements or potential offense elements, but it concluded that the Descamps Court did not understand the term element to mean only those facts about a crime that must be proved to a jury unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Trent, 767 F.3d at 105861. Instead, the Trent court concluded that a statute is divisible within the meaning of Descamps whenever it employs alternative statutory phrases. Id. at 106061 (citing
Descamps v. United States, 133 S. Ct. at 2285 n.2).
Matter of Chairez, 26 I&N Dec. at 482.

The National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild and the Immigration Defense Project published a practice advisory linked below that explains the decision detail, and suggests that the BIA is misreading Trent.
http://nationalimmigrationproject.org/legalresources/practice_advisories...

 

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