Aggravated Felonies
Aggravated felonies are defined at 8 USC § 1 10l(a)(43), which is a list of dozens of common-law terms and references to federal statutes. Federal and state offenses can be aggravated felonies, as can foreign offenses unless the resulting imprisonment ended more than 15 years earlier.
Where a federal criminal statute is cited in the aggravated felony definition, a state offense is an aggravated felony only if all of the elements of the state offense are included in the federal offense. It is not necessary for the state offense to contain the federal jurisdictional element of the federal statute (crossing state lines, affecting inter-state commerce) to be a sufficient match. See, ~:g., U.S. v. Castillo-Rivera, 244 F.3d 1020 (9th Cir. 2001)(Calif. P.C. § 12021(a)(1) is an aggravated felony as an analogue 18 USC § 922(b)(1)). Where the aggravated felony is: identified by a general or common law terms
-- such as theft, burglary, sexual abuse ofaminor — courts will create a standard “generic” definition setting out the elements of the offense. To be an aggravated felony, a state offense must be entirely covered by the generic definition. See, e.g., discussion of burglary and theft in Note “Burglary, Theft and Fraud.” It is especially difficult to determine whether a specific state offense will be held an aggravated felony when a court ha~ not yet created the “generic” standard.
