Sanchez-Resendiz v. Garland

• Decision Date: 08 July 2022
• Docket Number: 17-73511
• Parties: SARA SANCHEZ-RESENDIZ, Petitioner, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

SARA SANCHEZ-RESENDIZ, Petitioner,
v.
MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, Respondent.

No. 17-73511

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

July 8, 2022

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

Submitted July 6, 2022 ^[**] Portland, Oregon

On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals Agency No. A078-048-655

Before: WATFORD, R. NELSON, and LEE, Circuit Judges.

MEMORANDUM ^[*]

Sara Sanchez-Resendiz petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) denying her motion to reopen or reconsider her removal proceedings. We have limited jurisdiction to review for legal or constitutional error, see Bonilla v. Lynch, 840 F.3d 575, 588 (9th Cir. 2016), and

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we deny the petition.

In Sanchez-Resendez v. Lynch, 608 Fed.Appx. 537, 538 (9th Cir. 2015), we held that Sanchez-Resendiz's conviction for facilitating the unlawful transportation of marijuana for sale constituted a crime involving moral turpitude. We concluded that Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-3405(A)(4), which contains the substantive offense underlying Sanchez-Resendiz's conviction, is divisible. Id. We then applied the modified categorical approach to determine that Sanchez-Resendiz's conviction included a "for sale" element and therefore constituted a drugtrafficking offense involving moral turpitude. Id.

Sanchez-Resendiz argues that intervening decisions from both the Supreme Court and this court have demonstrated that our prior decision was erroneous. But in Walcott v. Garland, 21 F.4th 590, 596-98 (9th Cir. 2021), we confirmed that § 13-3405(A)(4) is divisible and that the "transport for sale" offense it encompasses can involve moral turpitude. Although we held that Walcott's convictions in that case did not constitute a crime involving moral turpitude, Walcott was convicted under § 13-3405(A)(4) and (B)(10) for an offense involving less than two pounds of marijuana. Id. at 598. Here, Sanchez-Resendiz pleaded guilty to violating § 13-3405(A)(4) and (B)(11), meaning her offense involved two pounds or more of marijuana.

Because § 13-3405(A)(4) is divisible, and because § 13-3405(B)(11) does

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not encompass very small amounts of marijuana like the provision at issue in Walcott, Sanchez-Resendiz can point to no intervening precedent undermining our conclusion that her conviction constituted a crime involving moral turpitude. See Barragan-Lopez v. Mukasey, 508 F.3d 899, 903-04 (9th Cir. 2007). Sanchez-Resendiz has thus failed...