Esquivel-Quintana v. Sessions

Background

Juan Esquivel-Quintana is a Mexican national who became a lawful permanent resident. He pleaded no contest in California to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor after consensual sex when he was 21 and the other person was 17. The Department of Homeland Security sought to remove him, and an immigration judge and the federal immigration board treated his conviction as an aggravated felony called 'sexual abuse of a minor,' which would make him removable. A federal appeals court deferred to the board and denied relief, and the case reached the Supreme Court.

Reasoning

The Court examined whether the text of the California law, by itself, fits the federal idea of 'sexual abuse of a minor.' The Justices looked only at the statute of conviction, not the specific facts of what happened. Relying on ordinary dictionaries, a related federal statute, and the fact that most States then set the age of consent at 16, the Court concluded that where a law criminalizes sex solely because of the participants' ages, the federal offense requires the victim to be younger than 16. Because California's statute covers victims who can be 17, it does not categorically match the federal definition, so the conviction is not an aggravated felony under that immigration provision.

Real world impact

The ruling narrows one pathway to deportation for lawful permanent residents convicted under age-based statutory rape laws when the younger partner is at least 16. It leaves open other questions, including cases involving special relationships of trust or different age-gap rules, which may be resolved in future cases.