The Board of Immigration Appeals (Board) has determined that a conviction for stalking in California is not a crime of stalking, overruling its prior decision in the same case. The Board determined that there is a realistic probability that California would apply section 646.9 to conduct committed with the intent to cause and which causes a victim to fear safety in a non-physical sense. Because the Legislature explicitly replaced the specific reference to death or great bodily injury with the broader term safety, stalking offenses committed with the intention of causing a victim to fear nonphysical injury, either personally or to his or her family, may be prosecuted in California. Such offenses fall outside the scope of the definition of a crime of stalking. The Board further determined that the statute is indivisible, and as such, the modified categorical approach cannot be employed.
The full text of Matter of Sanchez-Lopez can be found here: