Uppal v. Holder , 605 F.3d 712 ( 2010 )


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  •                   FOR PUBLICATION
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
    JASPAL SINGH UPPAL,                        No. 07-72614
    Petitioner,
    Agency No.
    v.
       A076-841-745
    ERIC H. HOLDER   Jr., Attorney
    ORDER AND
    General,
    OPINION
    Respondent.
    
    On Petition for Review of an Order of the
    Board of Immigration Appeals
    Argued and Submitted
    February 10, 2009—San Francisco, California
    Filed May 21, 2010
    Before: David R. Thompson, Marsha S. Berzon and
    N. Randy Smith, Circuit Judges.
    Opinion by Judge Berzon
    7303
    UPPAL v. HOLDER                   7305
    COUNSEL
    Martin Avila Robles, Immigration Practice Group, P.C., San
    Francisco, California, for the petitioner.
    Tiffany Walters Kleinert, Office of Immigration Litigation,
    Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.,
    for the respondent.
    ORDER
    The Opinion and Concurrence in Part/Dissent in Part filed
    August 11, 2009, Slip Op. 10849, and appearing at 
    576 F.3d 1014
     (9th Cir. 2009), are withdrawn. They may not be cited
    7306                   UPPAL v. HOLDER
    as precedent by or to this court or any district court of the
    Ninth Circuit.
    The superseding opinion will be filed concurrently with this
    order. The parties may file an additional petition for rehearing
    or rehearing en banc.
    OPINION
    BERZON, Circuit Judge:
    Jaspal Singh Uppal, a native and citizen of India, petitions
    for review of the Board of Immigration Appeal’s (BIA) order
    dismissing his appeal. Uppal contends the BIA erred in con-
    cluding that he had committed a crime which categorically
    involved moral turpitude, thus rendering him inadmissible at
    the time of his adjustment of status, and subject to removal.
    We agree and grant the petition.
    BACKGROUND
    Jaspal Singh Uppal entered the United States illegally
    around February 1, 1997, near Blaine, Washington. He was
    granted asylum in 1998 and accorded status as a permanent
    resident in 2004.
    On April 11, 2006, the Department of Homeland Security
    (“DHS”) issued Uppal a Notice to Appear. The Notice
    charged Uppal as removable under 
    8 U.S.C. § 1227
    (a)(1)(A),
    alleging that Uppal was inadmissible at the time of his entry
    and/or adjustment of status on two grounds: 1) he had been
    convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude, and 2) he
    attempted to obtain immigration benefits through fraud or
    misrepresentation of a material fact. 
    8 U.S.C. § 1182
    (a)(2)(A)(i)(I); (a)(6)(C)(i).
    UPPAL v. HOLDER                         7307
    Specifically, the Notice alleged that on February 21, 1995,
    Uppal was convicted of aggravated assault in violation of § 2681
    of the Canada Criminal Code and deported from Canada to
    India as a result. The Notice further alleged that Uppal’s
    application for asylum made no mention of this conviction or
    his status as a Canadian permanent resident.
    On receiving the Notice, Uppal filed a formal motion to ter-
    minate the removal proceedings. Without holding an evidenti-
    ary hearing the IJ issued a final order denying the motion.
    Uppal’s conviction under § 268 of the Criminal Code of Can-
    ada (on occasion hereafter “§ 268”), the IJ held, constituted a
    categorical crime involving moral turpitude (“CIMT”). The IJ
    also concluded that Uppal had committed immigration fraud
    by concealing both the conviction and his status as a Canadian
    permanent resident from U.S. immigration officials.
    Uppal timely appealed the IJ’s order to the BIA. In a one-
    panel-member, unpublished decision, the BIA affirmed the
    IJ’s order. Undertaking a de novo review of the moral turpi-
    tude issue, the BIA concluded that the IJ was correct in deter-
    mining that a § 268 offense constituted a categorical CIMT,
    rendering Uppal inadmissible at the time of his adjustment of
    status. The BIA reasoned that Uppal “was convicted of having
    committed aggravated assault by, in the process of commit-
    ting an assault, wounding, maiming, disfiguring or endanger-
    ing the life of the victim.” Basing its conclusion on its
    interpretation of the statutory language of § 268, the BIA
    determined that “the crime cannot be committed negligently
    or carelessly; rather, [the crime] requires willfulness of the
    action which inflicts significant injury.” As the BIA found
    Uppal removable on that basis alone, it did not reach the
    immigration fraud issue.
    1
    The Notice to Appear alleged that Uppal was convicted of violating
    § 268(2) of the Canada Criminal Code. As that subsection refers only to
    the maximum punishment applicable to aggravated assault, we construe
    the allegation as one of prior conviction under subsection 268(1), which
    sets forth the elements of the crime.
    7308                   UPPAL v. HOLDER
    Uppal timely filed this petition for review.
    JURISDICTION
    We have jurisdiction to review this final order of removal
    under 
    8 U.S.C. § 1252
    (a)(1). Although our jurisdiction to
    review orders of removal against “criminal aliens” is limited
    by 
    8 U.S.C. § 1252
    (a)(2)(C), we retain jurisdiction to review
    constitutional challenges and questions of law. See 
    8 U.S.C. § 1252
    (a)(2)(C), (a)(2)(D). Whether a crime involves moral
    turpitude is a question of law not subject to the jurisdiction-
    stripping provision of § 1252(a)(2)(C). Tall v. Mukasey, 
    517 F.3d 1115
    , 1118-19 (9th Cir. 2008).
    DISCUSSION
    The determination whether a conviction under a criminal
    statute is categorically a CIMT involves two steps, to which
    different standards of review apply. See Marmolejo-Campos
    v. Holder, 
    558 F.3d 903
    , 907 (9th Cir. 2009) (en banc). First,
    the BIA must identify the elements of the statute necessary to
    secure a conviction. Because “[t]he BIA has no special exper-
    tise by virtue of its statutory responsibilities in construing
    state or federal criminal statutes,” we review its conclusion in
    that regard de novo. 
    Id. at 907
    . Second, once it identifies the
    elements of the statute, the BIA must compare those elements
    to the generic definition of a crime involving moral turpitude
    and decide whether they meet the definition. 
    Id. at 908
    ; see
    also Morales-Garcia v. Holder, 
    567 F.3d 1058
    , 1064 (9th Cir.
    2009). Because the BIA does have expertise in making this
    determination, we defer to its conclusion if warranted, follow-
    ing the Chevron framework if the decision is a published deci-
    sion (or an unpublished decision directly controlled by a
    published decision interpreting the same statute), and follow-
    ing the Skidmore framework if the decision is unpublished
    (and not directly controlled by any published decision inter-
    preting the same statute). Marmolejo-Campos, 
    558 F.3d at 909-11
    ; see also Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def.
    UPPAL v. HOLDER                     7309
    Council, Inc., 
    467 U.S. 837
    , 843 (1984); Skidmore v. Swift &
    Co., 
    323 U.S. 134
    , 140 (1944). As the decision here is of the
    latter variety, our deference analysis on the second prong of
    the CIMT inquiry must proceed under Skidmore.
    1.   The Elements of § 268
    [1] We turn to the first step of the inquiry: identifying the
    elements of Canada Criminal Code § 268 (aggravated
    assault). A person commits “aggravated assault” under § 268
    of the Canada Criminal Code if he “wounds, maims, disfig-
    ures, or endangers the life of” another. Can. Crim. Code,
    R.S.C., ch. C-46 § 268(1) (1985). As the statute thus requires
    either injury or the “endanger[ment] of the life of” the victim,
    it can be satisfied even if no actual injury occurs.
    Canadian case law interpreting § 268 leaves no doubt that
    there need be no actual harm. As the Canadian Supreme Court
    explained: “There is no prerequisite that any harm must actu-
    ally have resulted. This first requirement of § 268(1) is satis-
    fied by the significant risk to the li[fe] of the [victim]
    occasioned by the [application of force].” R. v. Cuerrier,
    [1998] 
    2 S.C.R. 371
    , ¶ 95 (Can.).
    [2] Although it is difficult to tell for sure from the BIA’s
    terse analysis whether the BIA correctly identified the ele-
    ments of § 268, most likely it did not. The BIA’s decision
    quotes the statute’s actus reus language—“wound[ing], maim-
    [ing], disfigur[ing], or endanger[ing] the life of the
    complainant”—correctly, but it then goes on to paraphrase the
    statute as requiring “willfulness of the action which inflicts
    significant injury“ (emphasis added), suggesting that it has
    overlooked the endangerment alternative. We therefore con-
    clude that the BIA misapprehended the actus reus elements
    required for a conviction under § 268. Because the BIA failed
    to identify the elements of § 268 correctly, its CIMT analysis,
    in which it compares the elements it has identified to the
    generic definition of moral turpitude, is misdirected and so
    7310                     UPPAL v. HOLDER
    merits no deference from this Court. See Morales-Garcia, 
    567 F.3d at
    1066 n.4.
    2.    Comparison of § 268 to the CIMT definition
    [3] Even if we misread the BIA’s opinion as premised on
    the erroneous understanding that § 268 requires actual injury,
    we still could not defer to the BIA’s conclusion that § 268 is
    categorically a CIMT. Under Skidmore, the measure of defer-
    ence afforded to the agency “depends upon the thoroughness
    evident in its consideration, the validity of its reasoning, its
    consistency with earlier and later pronouncements, and all
    those factors which give it power to persuade, if lacking
    power to control.” 
    323 U.S. at 140
    . When this standard is
    applied, the second step of the BIA’s CIMT analysis does not
    warrant deference. That analysis is neither thoroughly rea-
    soned nor consistent with prior BIA and Ninth Circuit case
    law. In addition, there is a head-on conflict between the BIA’s
    analysis and this Court’s recent decision in Morales-Garcia v.
    Holder, 
    567 F.3d 1058
    , as well as a general conflict with the
    BIA’s own case law.
    To see why the BIA’s CIMT analysis cannot stand, we
    begin by eludicating § 268’s mens rea requirement. To do so,
    we must read § 268 together with § 265, which establishes a
    base-level mens rea requirement for all assault offenses under
    the Criminal Code of Canada:
    A person commits an assault when
    (a) without the consent of another person,
    he applies force intentionally to that other
    person, directly or indirectly;
    (b) he attempts or threatens, by an act or a
    gesture, to apply force to another person, if
    he has, or causes that other person to
    UPPAL v. HOLDER                      7311
    believe on reasonable grounds that he has,
    present ability to effect his purpose; or
    (c) while openly wearing or carrying a
    weapon or an imitation thereof, he accosts
    or impedes another person or begs.
    Can. Crim. Code, R.S.C., ch. C-46 § 265(1) (1985); Cuerrier,
    
    2 S.C.R. 371
    , ¶¶ 94-95.
    [4] The mens rea required for a conviction under § 268
    thus includes the base-level mens rea required for simple
    assault: (1) the force must be intentionally applied; and (2) the
    force must be applied without the victim’s consent, with the
    perpetrator “intentionally or recklessly [disregarding the lack
    of consent] or being wil[l]fully blind to the fact that the victim
    does not consent.” R. v. Williams, [2003] 
    2 S.C.R. 134
    , ¶ 22
    (Can.). In addition to the base-level mens rea requirement, a
    conviction for aggravated assault requires that the “risk of
    bodily harm” resulting from the application of force be “ob-
    jective[ly] fores[eeable.]” 
    Id.
     As this summary indicates, a
    conviction for aggravated assault under § 268 does not require
    that the perpetrator specifically intend to inflict serious physi-
    cal injury, or any injury at all. Indeed, under § 268, a perpetra-
    tor need not even recklessly disregard the risk of bodily harm
    or endangerment resulting from the assault. Instead, § 268
    requires only that a reasonable person would know that the
    assault carries a risk of bodily injury or endangerment, which
    is a negligence standard. See Marmolejo-Campos, 
    558 F.3d at 912
    .
    Once again, this understanding is confirmed by case law.
    As the Canadian Supreme Court noted in R. v. Godin, “[i]t is
    not necessary that there be an intent to wound or maim or dis-
    figure [under § 268]. The section pertains to an assault that
    has the consequences of wounding, maiming or disfiguring.”
    [1994] 
    2 S.C.R. 484
    , ¶ 2 (emphasis added); see also R. v. L.,
    [1992] 59 O.A.C. 130, ¶¶ 8-10 (Ont. Ct. App.) (“[T]he essen-
    7312                         UPPAL v. HOLDER
    tial intent required for an assault . . . remains the same for all
    forms of assault, including aggravated assault. Parliament . . .
    never intended that, on an indictment charging ‘aggravated
    assault,’ the prosecution would be required to prove that the
    accused intended to wound, maim or disfigure the complain-
    ant or endanger his life. . . . Aggravated assault is . . . a crime
    of general intent.” (internal quotation marks and citations
    omitted)) (interpreting the former § 245.2, which is identical
    to the current § 268). Likewise, in R. v. Brodie, the British
    Columbia Court of Appeal affirmed an aggravated assault
    conviction in which the defendant had forcefully pushed the
    victim in a driveway, causing the victim to fall and resulting
    in life-long brain damage. See [1995] 60 B.C.A.C. 153, ¶¶ 5,
    12. The court noted that “a reasonable person who contem-
    plated pushing another over . . . would be bound to foresee
    that such conduct would expose the victim to risk of bodily
    harm.” Id. ¶ 10 (emphasis added).
    [5] Comparing the requisite mens rea under § 268 with the
    case law concerning assaults as CIMTs, it becomes clear that
    a § 268 conviction cannot categorically be a CIMT. Under
    well-established law, simple assault and battery convictions
    are not categorically CIMT convictions because the required
    mens rea for simple assault or battery is usually the intent to
    touch another offensively, not the “evil” intent typically
    required for a CIMT.2
    2
    See Matter of Solon, 
    24 I. & N. Dec. 239
    , 241 (BIA 2007) (“Offenses
    characterized as ‘simple assaults’ are generally not considered to be
    crimes involving moral turpitude. This is so because they require general
    intent only and may be committed without the evil intent, depraved or
    vicious motive, or corrupt mind associated with moral turpitude.” (internal
    citation omitted)); Matter of Fualaau, 
    21 I. & N. Dec. 475
    , 477 (BIA
    1996) (defining a CIMT as “ ‘an act which is per se morally reprehensible
    and intrinsically wrong, or malum in se, so it is the nature of the act itself
    and not the statutory prohibition of it which renders a crime one of moral
    turpitude.’ ” (quoting Matter of Franklin, 
    20 I. & N. Dec. 867
    , 868 (BIA
    1994))); Matter of B-, 
    5 I. & N. Dec. 538
    , 540-41 (BIA 1953) (holding a
    simple assault committed “knowingly” upon a prison guard involved no
    evil intent and so was not a CIMT).
    UPPAL v. HOLDER                           7313
    Some assault statutes, though, have been held to be CIMTs.
    Those statutes include as an element “some aggravating
    dimension” sufficient to increase the culpability of an assault
    or battery and so to transform the offense into one categori-
    cally a CIMT. The “aggravating dimensions” recognized as
    sufficiently increasing the culpability of an assault to turn an
    assault into a CIMT have been the use of a deadly weapon,
    Matter of Medina, 
    15 I. & N. Dec. 611
     (BIA 1976), and a vic-
    tim who has a special status or trust relationship vis à vis the
    perpetrator, such as a domestic partner or spouse, In re Tran,
    21 I. & N. Dec. at 291, a child, Guerrero de Nodahl v. I.N.S.,
    
    407 F.2d 1405
     (9th Cir. 1969), or a peace officer, Matter of
    Danesh, 
    19 I. & N. Dec. 669
     (BIA 1988). As these categories
    of cases illustrate, to rise to the level of moral turpitude, an
    assault crime must involve a particular type of aggravating
    factor, one that says something about the turpitude or blame-
    worthiness inherent in the action. See generally Nunez v.
    Holder, 
    594 F.3d 1124
    , 1131 & n.4 (9th Cir. 2010).
    The only precedential BIA case of which we are aware in
    which an assault offense was held categorically a CIMT
    despite the absence of a special protected status or trust rela-
    tionship or the use of a deadly weapon is Matter of Franklin,
    See also, generally, Navarro-Lopez v. Gonzales, 
    503 F.3d 1063
    , 1068
    (9th Cir. 2007) (en banc) (defining non-fraud CIMTs as involving conduct
    that is “inherently base, vile, or depraved” and “contrary to the [accepted]
    private and social duties man owes to his fellow men or to society in gen-
    eral” (emphasis added)); Fernandez-Ruiz v. Gonzales, 
    468 F.3d 1159
    ,
    1165-66 (9th Cir. 2006) (discussing the requirement that a crime involve
    a showing of “ ‘willfulness’ or ‘evil intent’ ” to be classified as a CIMT,
    as opposed to “general intent” or “reckless[ness]”); Notash v. Gonzales,
    
    427 F.3d 693
    , 698 (9th Cir. 2005) (holding that an act done deliberately
    and with knowledge does not necessarily involve the “evil intent” required
    for CIMT purposes); Goldeshtein v. I.N.S., 
    8 F.3d 645
    , 648 (9th Cir. 1993)
    (rejecting the argument that “evil intent exists if a conviction requires
    proof that a defendant did a forbidden act ‘willfully,’ ” where “willfully”
    was defined to mean “deliberately and with knowledge”).
    7314                        UPPAL v. HOLDER
    
    20 I. & N. Dec. 867
     (BIA 1994). In Franklin, the BIA held
    that an involuntary manslaughter statute was categorically a
    CIMT because the statute had as elements both extreme reck-
    lessness and the death of another person, a result serious
    enough to raise the offense to a CIMT even without a show-
    ing of specific evil intent. Franklin, 20 I. & N. Dec. at 870.3
    Consistently with these general trends in the BIA’s case
    law, this Court recently reversed the BIA and held that Cali-
    fornia Penal Code section 273.5, which penalizes the “will-
    ful[ ] inflict[ion] upon a person who is his or her spouse,
    former spouse, cohabitant, former cohabitant, or the mother or
    father of his or her child, corporal injury resulting in a trau-
    matic condition,” is not categorically a CIMT. See Morales-
    Garcia, 
    567 F.3d at 1060, 1063
    . The Court so held because
    the statute did not require any special trust relationship — the
    victim could be merely a “former cohabitant”; it also
    observed that the resulting harm, a “traumatic condition,”
    could encompass “a wound or external or internal injury
    [even] . . . of a minor . . . nature.” 
    Id. at 1063
    .
    3
    In Matter of Fualaau, a case involving reckless assault, the BIA hinted
    that something short of death—perhaps “serious bodily injury”—might be
    sufficient. See 21 I. & N. Dec. at 477 (indicating that reckless assault was
    not categorically a CIMT because it did not require “serious bodily inju-
    ry”). Moreover, some of our sister circuits consider serious bodily injury
    resulting from assault an aggravating factor where the mens rea standard
    requires recklessness. See Godinez-Arroyo v. Mukasey, 
    540 F.3d 848
    , 849,
    851 (8th Cir. 2008) (affirming an unpublished BIA opinion that held a
    conviction for “second-degree assault . . . for recklessly causing serious
    physical injury to another person” was a CIMT (internal quotation marks
    and alterations omitted)); Pichardo v. I.N.S., 
    104 F.3d 756
    , 760 (5th Cir.
    1997) (determining that an aggravated assault statute requiring “serious
    bodily injury” to any person or “bodily injury” to a police officer or
    inflicted with a deadly weapon constituted a CIMT because it contained
    the elements of “bodily injury together with a minimum mens rea of reck-
    lessness”). Because the criminal provision at issue here requires neither
    recklessness with respect to harm nor serious bodily injury, these deci-
    sions are not useful guides.
    UPPAL v. HOLDER                     7315
    There is no way to square the BIA’s opinion in this case
    with Morales-Garcia. As in Morales-Garcia, the statute at
    issue in Uppal’s case requires no special trust relationship
    between the victim and the perpetrator. And it does not
    require that serious physical injury, much less death, result.
    Under § 268, it is sufficient to “endanger the life of” the vic-
    tim, even if the victim sustains no bodily injury at all. See
    Cuerrier, 
    2 S.C.R. 371
    , ¶ 95.
    Nor can the BIA’s conclusion with respect to § 268 find
    support in the context of non-assault cases in which the BIA
    and courts of appeal have held that certain endangerment
    crimes constitute a CIMT even without resulting injury. This
    line of cases requires actual knowledge of a factor indicating
    risk of harm and conscious disregard of it, whereas § 268
    requires only negligence. In Marmolejo-Campos v. Holder,
    for example, we held, after applying the modified categorical
    approach, that a conviction for driving or physically control-
    ling a car while under the influence and with a suspended or
    restricted license constituted a CIMT. 
    558 F.3d at 917
    . How-
    ever, we emphasized that the petitioner had “actual knowl-
    edge” that his license was invalid at the time of his crimes,
    and so demonstrated a subjectively culpable mental state. 
    Id.
    at 913 n.12; see also Keungne v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 
    561 F.3d 1281
    , 1286-87 (11th Cir. 2009); Knapik v. Ashcroft, 
    384 F.3d 84
    , 90 n.5 (3d Cir. 2004); Matter of Lopez-Meza, 
    22 I. & N. Dec. 1188
    , 1194, 1196 (BIA 1999), rejected on other grounds
    by Hernandez-Martinez v. Ashcroft, 
    329 F.3d 1117
    , 1118-19
    (9th Cir. 2003). In contrast, § 268 requires only that the risk
    of harm resulting from the assault be “objective[ly] fores[ee-
    able],” [1994] R. v. Godin, 
    2 S.C.R. 484
    , ¶ 2, not that the per-
    petrator actually have subjective knowledge of a factor
    indicating risk to another.
    [6] Given these considerations, this case does not fall
    within the scope of Franklin, in which the unintended result
    was death; the special factor assault cases; or the endanger-
    ment cases requiring actual knowledge and conscious disre-
    7316                       UPPAL v. HOLDER
    gard of the risk of harm. And outside of these exceptions, the
    BIA’s case law uniformly indicates that an assault statute
    requiring only general intent cannot be categorically a CIMT.
    For example, in Matter of Muceros, A42-998-610 (BIA May
    11, 2000) (index decision),4 the BIA held that a conviction
    under California Penal Code section 243(d) for “battery . . .
    [in which] serious injury is inflicted” is not categorically a
    CIMT, because
    the level of intent involved only extends to touching
    the victim. No evil intent is required. The victims
    are not a specially protected class of persons or those
    who have a special relationship to the perpetrator.
    . . . We recognize the argument that the element of
    “serious bodily injury” presents an aggravating fac-
    tor which elevates the respondent’s crime to one
    involving moral turpitude. [But] [w]e adopt the rea-
    soning of the California Courts in this regard, which
    have held that “[s]ince section 243 does not require
    an intention to do any act which would be judged to
    be evil by generally accepted community standards
    of morality, battery is not a crime of moral turpitude
    [for impeachment purposes] even though it may
    unintentionally result in serious bodily injury.”
    
    Id.
     at *5-*6 (internal citation omitted). Similarly, in Matter of
    Solon, the BIA gave dispositive significance to the distinction
    between general and specific intent in holding that a New
    4
    All decisions designated to serve as precedent are published in bound
    volumes of the reporter entitled Administrative Decisions Under the Immi-
    gration & Nationality Laws of the United States (or “I. & N. Dec.”). Sepa-
    rately, the Executive Office of Immigration Review periodically compiles
    certain unpublished decisions as so-called “indexed decisions,” which are
    meant to serve as useful but non-binding guidance for EOIR staff. See BIA
    PRAC. MAN., Ch. 1.4(d) (rev. July 30, 2004), available at http://
    www.usdoj.gov/eoir/vll/qapracmanual/pracmanual/chap1.pdf.         Indexed
    decisions are, nevertheless, non-precedential.
    UPPAL v. HOLDER                          7317
    York conviction for assault in the third degree is categorically
    a CIMT:
    [S]ection 120.00(1) of the revised New York Penal
    Law . . . provides that a person is guilty of assault
    in the third degree when, “[w]ith intent to cause
    physical injury to another person, he causes such
    injury to such person or to a third person.” . . . [The
    statute] requires “intent to cause physical injury.” . . .
    Thus, the statute under which the respondent was
    convicted requires the specific intent to cause physi-
    cal injury, as opposed to the general intent associated
    with simple assault. Therefore, the inclusion of the
    specific intent element distinguishes third-degree
    assault under section 120.00(1) of the New York
    Penal Law from the general-intent simple assaults,
    which are not considered to involve moral turpitude.
    
    24 I. & N. Dec. 239
    , 243-44 (BIA 2007) (internal citations
    omitted).
    This Court, too, has taken note of the distinction between
    general and specific intent in the assault and battery contexts.
    See Galeana-Mendoza v. Gonzales, 
    465 F.3d 1054
    , 1059-61
    (9th Cir. 2006) (holding that a conviction under a domestic
    battery statute that applied to a wide range of relationships
    and required neither injury nor an intent to injure did not cate-
    gorically qualify as a crime involving moral turpitude);
    Grageda v. I.N.S., 
    12 F.3d 919
    , 922 (9th Cir. 1993) (holding
    that “when a person willfully beats his or her spouse severely
    enough to cause ‘a traumatic condition,’ he or she has com-
    mitted an act of baseness or depravity contrary to accepted
    moral standards [and has categorically committed a crime
    involving moral turpitude]” and noting that this “conclusion
    follows from Guerrero de Nodahl[, 
    407 F.2d at 1406
    ,]
    because the injurious act under section 273.5(a) must be will-
    ful, meaning that the person intended to cause the harm”); cf.
    Morales-Garcia, 
    567 F.3d at
    1066 n.5 (noting that “Grageda
    7318                   UPPAL v. HOLDER
    interpreted the statute to require that the defendant ‘intended
    to cause the harm,’ although later California cases appear to
    require only the general intent to commit the act that results
    in injury[ ]” (internal citation omitted) and expressing no
    opinion on whether general intent would be sufficient).
    [7] As a result, under the BIA’s case law and our own, an
    assault statute not involving a specific intent to injure or a
    special trust relationship and not requiring that the assault
    cause death or even serious bodily injury cannot qualify as a
    categorical CIMT.
    Conclusion
    [8] The BIA may have misconstrued the statutory ele-
    ments. Whether it did or not, it applied a CIMT analysis
    inconsistent with our case law and its own. We therefore grant
    the petition and remand for application of the modified cate-
    gorical approach. Of course, the BIA may also reach on
    remand the immigration fraud issue it has not yet addressed.
    GRANTED and REMANDED.