On remand from the Ninth Circuit, the Board of Immigration Appeals has again held that a conviction for sponsoring or exhibiting an animal in an animal fighting venture is a crime involving moral turpitude. The Board rejected the Ninth Circuit's contention that non-fraudulent crimes should involve an intent to injure, actual infliction of injury, or a protected class of victims to qualify as crimes involving moral turpitude. The Board then stated that it considered the crime of sponsoring or exhibiting an animal in an animal fighting venture to be of a similar nature to crimes of prostitution and incest. Because this conduct "celebrates animal suffering for one’s personal enjoyment, it transgresses the socially accepted rules of morality and breaches the duty owed to society in general."
The full text of Matter of Ortega Lopez can be found here: