PAEZ, Circuit Judge:
In this petition for review of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA" or "Board"), we address whether Petitioner Rigoberto Aguilar-Turcios's conviction under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice ("UCMJ") qualifies as an "aggravated felony" as defined in 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(I). For the reasons discussed below, we conclude that Aguilar-Turcios's Article 92 conviction is not an aggravated felony. We therefore grant the petition and remand this case to the BIA with instructions to vacate the removal order against him.
Aguilar-Turcios is a citizen and native of Honduras who came to the United States as a legal permanent resident ("LPR") in 1996. He married his wife, Vicenta, in June of 2000, shortly before he enlisted in
While in the Marine Corps, Aguilar-Turcios used a government computer to access pornographic Internet sites and to download pornographic images of female minors.
In 2003, Aguilar-Turcios pleaded guilty to and was convicted by special court-martial of violating UCMJ Article 92, which prohibits "violat[ing] or fail[ing] to obey any lawful general order or regulation," 10 U.S.C. § 892(1), and UCMJ Article 134, which renders punishable, inter alia, "all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces," id. § 934.
Specifically, Aguilar-Turcios pleaded guilty to violating UCMJ Article 92 as a result of his violation of Department of Defense ("DOD") Directive 5500.7-R § 2-301(a), which provides that government computers "shall be for official use and authorized purposes only" and that such "authorized purposes" do not include "uses involving pornography."
Aguilar-Turcios also pleaded guilty to and was convicted of bringing discredit upon the armed forces under UCMJ Article 134, by "wrongfully and knowingly possess[ing] visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, which conduct was prejudicial to good order and discipline of the armed forces." Id. § 2-301(d).
The Military Judge ("MJ") sentenced Aguilar-Turcios to ten months of confinement, a pay-grade reduction, and a badconduct discharge from the Marine Corps.
In 2005, the federal government initiated removal proceedings against Aguilar-Turcios, charging him as removable under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii) for having been convicted of an aggravated felony. The government alleged that Aguilar-Turcios's convictions under UCMJ Articles 92 and 134 amounted to violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252(a)(2)
The Immigration Judge ("IJ") assigned to Aguilar-Turcios's removal proceeding determined that neither the Article 92 nor the Article 134 violations qualified categorically as an aggravated felony under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(I). Turning to the modified categorical analysis, the IJ first held that Aguilar-Turcios's Article 134 conviction was not an aggravated felony because Article 134 does not refer to child pornography. The IJ was not persuaded that the specific facts with which Aguilar-Turcios was charged became an element of the Article 134 conviction for purposes of
Aguilar-Turcios appealed the IJ's decision regarding his Article 92 conviction to the BIA. The government did not appeal the IJ's decision regarding the Article 134 conviction. The BIA affirmed the IJ's decision in a per curiam order.
Aguilar-Turcios petitioned for review of the BIA's order, and we granted the petition and remanded the case to the BIA.
Like the IJ, we concluded that an Article 92 conviction for violating DOD Directive 5500.7-R § 2-301(a) is not categorically an aggravated felony. Id. at 1096-97. We also held that the modified categorical approach did not apply to the question of whether Aguilar-Turcios's Article 92 conviction was an aggravated felony. Id. at 1097-98. We applied the so-called "missing element rule" from Navarro-Lopez v. Gonzales, 503 F.3d 1063, 1073 (9th Cir.2007) (en banc), which limited the application of the modified categorical approach to statutes of conviction that are divisible into several crimes and barred application of the rule where a statute of conviction was "missing" an element of the generic crime. Aguilar-Turcios I, 582 F.3d at 1097-98. Concluding that both Article 92 and DOD Directive 5500.7-R § 2-301(a) were "missing" the element of "a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct," we held that the modified categorical approach did not apply and that Aguilar-Turcios's Article 92 conviction did not meet the generic definition of "aggravated felony." Id.
Judge Bybee dissented, calling into question the validity and wisdom of the Navarro-Lopez "missing element rule" and concluding that Aguilar-Turcios's Article 92 conviction "necessarily shows that he committed the aggravated felony of knowing possession of child pornography" because "[t]he only pornography that Aguilar-Turcios admitted to accessing on his government computer during the plea colloquy were the six images of child pornography." Id. at 1098-99, 1113 (Bybee, J., dissenting).
Following publication of our original opinion in this case, the government filed a petition for rehearing en banc. The petition sought reconsideration of the Navarro-Lopez rule. Before we could rule on the government's petition, a majority of the court's active judges granted rehearing in another case, United States v. Aguila-Montes de Oca ("Aguila-Montes"), to consider the same question. 594 F.3d 1080 (9th Cir.2010). We therefore held this
Aguila-Montes overruled Navarro-Lopez's "missing element rule." 655 F.3d 915, 916-17 (9th Cir.2011) (en banc). As a result of the holding in Aguila-Montes, we withdrew our original opinion in this case and requested supplemental briefing from the parties as to what effect, if any, Aguila-Montes had on the outcome of Aguilar-Turcios's case. Aguilar-Turcios v. Holder, 652 F.3d 1236 (9th Cir.2011). In a new opinion, we applied Aguila-Montes and concluded that the facts "necessary" to support Aguilar-Turcios's Article 92 conviction did not satisfy the elements of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2) or (a)(4). Aguilar-Turcios v. Holder (Aguilar-Turcios II), 691 F.3d 1025, 1034 (9th Cir.2012), withdrawn by 729 F.3d 1294 (9th Cir.2013). Therefore, we once again held that Aguilar-Turcios's Article 92 conviction does not qualify as an aggravated felony. Id. at 1041-42. Judge Bybee again dissented.
But this turned out not to be the end of Aguilar-Turcios's case. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in another case, Descamps v. United States, to reconsider the rule we established in Aguila-Montes. ___ U.S. ___, 133 S.Ct. 90, 183 L.Ed.2d 730 (2012). The Supreme Court subsequently abrogated Aguila-Montes and held that sentencing courts may not apply the modified categorical approach when a defendant's statute of conviction contains an indivisible set of elements. Descamps v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 133 S.Ct. 2276, 2282-93, 186 L.Ed.2d 438 (2013). In light of Descamps, we withdrew our second opinion in this case. Aguilar-Turcios v. Holder, 729 F.3d 1294 (9th Cir.2012). We once again consider the merits of this case, applying the principles outlined in Descamps.
Generally, we have jurisdiction to review final orders of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1252(a)(1).
To determine whether Aguilar-Turcios's conviction under Article 92 is an
Here, the generic crimes, included within the definition of an aggravated felony contained in 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(I), with which we compare Aguilar-Turcios's Article 92 conviction are defined in subsections (a)(2) and (a)(4) of 18 U.S.C. § 2252. Each of these subsections contains an element that requires the defendant's conduct to involve a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. See supra notes 1 & 2. A conviction for violating Article 92 is thus categorically an aggravated felony only if Article 92 contains this same element or a narrower element.
To be convicted of violating Article 92, a person must have engaged in conduct that:
Art. 92, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 892. It is undisputed that Article 92 does not contain the element of conduct involving a depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
As discussed above, Aguilar-Turcios was convicted of violating Article 92 by violating or failing to obey a "lawful general order." The "lawful general order" that Aguilar-Turcios violated in connection with his Article 92 conviction is section 2-301(a) of DOD Directive 5500.7-R.
Thus, although a violation of section 2-301(a) may involve "pornography," the Directive clearly sweeps more broadly than §§ 2252(a)(2) and (a)(4) because one could violate section 2-301(a) without "necessarily
In the absence of a categorical match, we may, in some circumstances, apply the "modified categorical approach," under which we consider whether certain documents in the record or judicially noticeable facts show that the conviction qualifies as an aggravated felony. Descamps, 133 S.Ct. at 2281. The Court in Descamps recently clarified the limited circumstances under which we apply this approach. In abrogating Aguila-Montes, the Court explained that the modified categorical approach should only be applied to "determine which alternative element in a divisible statute formed the basis of the defendant's conviction." Id. at 2293. The modified categorical approach "serves a limited function: It helps effectuate the categorical analysis when a divisible statute, listing potential offense elements in the alternative, renders opaque which element played a part in the defendant's conviction." Id. at 2283.
Here, section 2-301(a) prohibits using government computers for a variety of purposes, including to view "pornography." See DOD Directive 5500.7-R, § 2-301(a). In that sense, we may consider the Directive as listing alternative elements that would support a violation. Neither Article 92 nor section 2-301(a), however, requires that the "pornography" involve a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Moreover, neither Article 92 nor section 2-301(a) include anywhere the element of a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, even as an alternative element. Instead, they are missing this element altogether.
We conclude that Aguilar-Turcios's UCMJ Article 92 conviction does not qualify as an aggravated felony. Therefore, we have jurisdiction over this case, and we grant the petition for review and remand to the BIA with instructions for the agency to vacate the removal order against the petitioner.
Descamps, 133 S.Ct. at 2292.
Moreover, not only did ICE not appeal this issue to the Board, but the government never argued to this court that we should consider the Article 134 conviction or remand to the Board for it to consider the issue until its second petition for rehearing. By failing to raise this argument in any of its several briefing opportunities before this court, the government waived its argument that we should remand to the Board for it to determine whether Aguilar-Turcios's Article 134 conviction qualifies as an aggravated felony. See Clem v. Lomeli, 566 F.3d 1177, 1182 (9th Cir.2009) (holding that an argument not addressed in an answering brief is waived (citing United States v. Gamboa-Cardenas, 508 F.3d 491, 502 (9th Cir.2007) (where appellees fail to raise an argument in their answering brief, "they have waived it"))).