UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ____________

No. 17-3640 ____________

K.A., Petitioner v. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ____________

On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (A077-026-013) Immigration Judge: Margaret Reichenberg ____________

Argued: January 14, 2020

Before: HARDIMAN, PORTER, and PHIPPS, Circuit Judges.

(Filed: May 4, 2021) ____________ Miguel A. Estrada Matthew S. Rozen [Argued] GIBSON DUNN & CRUTCHER 1050 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20036

Counsel for K.A. Allison Frayer [Argued] Anthony J. Messuri UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OFFICE OF IMMIGRATION LITIGATION P.O. Box 878 Ben Franklin Station Washington, DC 20044

Counsel for the Attorney General of the United States of America ____________

OPINION OF THE COURT ____________ PHIPPS, Circuit Judge.

This petition to review a motion to reopen decade-old immigration proceedings turns on a single legal issue: whether a conviction from 2000 for second-degree New Jersey robbery, see N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:15-1, constitutes an aggravated felony “theft offense” under the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, see 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(G). It does. From that conclusion, everything else falls into place. An aggravated felony theft offense constitutes a “particularly serious crime.”

2 Id. §§ 1158(b)(2)(B)(i), 1231(b)(3)(B). And commission of such a crime disqualifies an alien from seeking asylum. See id. § 1158(b)(2)(A)(ii). Similarly, a conviction for a particularly serious crime coupled with a prison sentence of at least five years, which petitioner received, bars withholding of removal. See id. § 1231(b)(3)(B)(ii). Because asylum and withholding are the only forms of relief sought in this case, we will deny the petition.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In 1994, K.A., a citizen of Nigeria, entered the United States without admission or parole. He settled in New Jersey, and in 1997, he married a woman who was a United States citizen. He also began to commit a series of crimes. Those offenses included second-degree robbery under N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:15-1 and third-degree possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school under N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:35-7. For the robbery, K.A. received a sentence of ten years, and for the drug crime, five years. Those sentences ran concurrently, and K.A. was incarcerated from 2002 until his parole in 2008.

K.A.’s release from custody would only be temporary, as incarceration became the norm for him over the next decade. Shortly after his parole, in August 2008, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) detained K.A. after it commenced removal proceedings against him. In 2010, however, while those proceedings were ongoing, K.A. was released on bond and began a relationship with a woman who was not his wife. After they were together for almost a year, in April 2011, K.A. was pulled over for driving under the influence in a car rented in her name. A search of that car

3 revealed potential evidence of fraud, and a federal grand jury in New Jersey later indicted K.A. on multiple counts of using inmates’ personal information to submit fraudulent tax returns and receive tax refunds. As a result, K.A. began criminal pretrial detention in April 2011.

During that time, his immigration proceedings ran their course. K.A. conceded removability, but still sought asylum, withholding of removal, an