Seventh Circuit Holds Wisconsin Child Neglect Conviction Is Categorically a Crime of Child Abuse

The Seventh Circuit has denied a petition for review filed by a Mexican woman found ineligible for cancellation of removal based on a Wisconsin misdemeanor conviction for neglecting a child, holding that the offense is a categorical match to the federal removability ground for a crime of child abuse, neglect, or abandonment.

Joining the Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits, the Court held that the federal ground should be read as a single, unified category requiring only a culpable mental state of at least criminal negligence and an act or omission creating a reasonable probability of harm to a child. Because Wisconsin's statute requires proof of intentional conduct, a higher mens rea than the federal floor, and does not require that the child actually suffer any injury, the Court held the state offense sweeps no more broadly than the federal ground and denied the petition.

The full text of Reynoso-Salgado v. Blanche can be found here: https://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/OpinionsWeb/processWebInputExternal.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2026/D09-01/C:23-2628:J:Jackson-Akiwumi:aut:T:fnOp:N:3601340:S:0

Seventh Circuit Construes Crime of Domestic Violence Deportability Ground

The Seventh Circuit has determined that the domestic relationship between perpetrator and victim need not be an element of the statute of conviction to establish deportability under section 237(a)(2)(E)(i) of the INA. Instead, the relationship may be established using the circumstance specific approach outlined in Nijhawan v. Holder.

The full text of de Jesus Caldera-Torres v. Garland can be found here:

http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/OpinionsWeb/processWebInputExternal.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2023/D04-27/C:22-2282:J:Easterbrook:aut:T:fnOp:N:3036912:S:0

Seventh Circuit finds that Wisconsin Battery Involving Domestic Abuse Conviction is Crime of Domestic Violence

The Seventh Circuit has reaffirmed that a Wisconsin conviction for battery involving domestic abuse is a crime of domestic violence because it involves the use of violent force.

The full text of Beltran-Aguilar v. Whitaker can be found here:

http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2019/D01-02/C:18-1799:J:Barrett:aut:T:fnOp:N:2271755:S:0

Eighth Circuit Determines that Wisconsin Burglary Statute is Divisible

The Eighth Circuit has determined that Wisconsin's burglary statute is divisible in light of the Supreme Court's decision in Mathis v. United States.  The court further determined that subsection a of the statute, which criminalized burglary of any building or dwelling, is a match to the generic definition of burglary.  Although this determination arose in the context of a federal sentencing case, given the similarity between the definition of a burglary offense under sentencing law and the definition of a burglary aggravated felony in the immigration context, this decision could be persuasive in the immigration context.

The full text of U.S. v. Lamb can be found here: 

http://media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/17/02/152399P.pdf