The Board of Immigration Appeals has determined that a Tennessee statutory rape conviction is a crime of child abuse, even though it includes victims over age 16. The Board concluded t that section 237(a)(2)(E)(i) covers a broader range of criminal conduct than the “sexual abuse of a minor” aggravated felony provision. “Thus, we conclude that the minimum criminal conduct proscribed by the respondent’s statute of conviction—sexual penetration between a victim who is 17 years old and a perpetrator who is at least 27 years old, committed with a mens rea of recklessness—necessarily involves maltreatment or impairment of a child’s physical or mental well-being and falls within the generic definition of a crime of child abuse.”
The full text of Matter of Aguilar-Barajas can be found here: