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Denying Formalism's Apologists: Reforming Immigration Law's Cimt Analysis, Jeremiah J. Farrelly

University of Colorado Law Review

Congress has long favored the "crime involving moral turpitude" as a statutory device to remove "undesirable" aliens from the United States. Unfortunately, Congress never bothered to define this important phrase. The judicial standard developed to address this shortfall has long been seen as unnecessarily formalistic, arbitrary, and both over- and under-inclusive. Until recently, however, these issues were ignored. In 2008, the Board of Immigration Appealsrightly deferred to by the Seventh Circuit-and the Attorney General finally addressed these issues, making significant revisions to the traditional standard. The Third Circuit, rather than following the Seventh Circuit in allowing the reform of an …