The Eleventh Circuit has remanded a case to the Board for further analysis about whether a federal conviction for misuse of a social security number is a crime involving moral turpitude. In so doing, the court noted that fraud requires that a misrepresentation be made to obtain a benefit from someone or cause a detriment to someone. “A violation of § 408(a)(7)(B) can sometimes be for the ‘purpose of obtaining anything of value from any person’—which would involve fraud—but under the categorical approach the ‘least culpable conduct necessary to sustain a conviction’ is the false representation of the Social Security number for ‘any other purpose,’ i.e., for a nonfraudulent purpose.”
“Our holding today does not foreclose the possibility that a conviction for a violation of § 408(a)(7)(B) may be a CIMT. But if the BIA is going to hold that it is, it will need to do what it has so far failed to do in Mr. Zarate’s case—it will have to apply its two pronged moral turpitude standard in toto and decide whether the statute, under the categorical approach, involves conduct that is ‘reprehensible,’ i.e., conduct that is ‘inherently base, vile, or depraved, and contrary to the accepted rules of morality and the duties owed between persons or to society in general.’”
The full text of Zarate v. U.S. Attorney General can be found here:
https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202011654.pdf