Offense
Reckless driving
Aggravated Felony (AF)
Not AF as COV plus potential sentence of less than a year
Crime Involving Moral Turpitude (CIMT)
Should not be held a CIMT.1Recklessness that might damage property or harm persons generally is not held a CIMT. For example, the Foreign Affairs Manual, which guides issuance of immigrant visas, states that reckless driving is not a crime involving moral turpitude. See 9 FAM 40.21(a) N2.3-2. See Advice.
Other Removal Grounds
No other removal ground
Advice and Comments
CIMT: While 23103 and 23103.5 should not be held CIMTs under any circumstances, best practice is to plead to recklessness re property.2This discussion considers the definition of recklessness that applies to Veh C § 23103, which is a conscious disregard of a known risk. Sections 23103 and 23103.5 should not be held CIMTs because they require only recklessness causing a risk to the safety of persons or property, not an imminent risk of death or very serious bodily injury. Recklessness that might damage property or harm persons generally is not held a CIMT. For example, the Foreign Affairs Manual, which guides issuance of immigrant visas, states that reckless driving is not a crime involving moral turpitude. See 9 FAM 40.21(a) N2.3-2. Recklessly causing bodily injury is not a CIMT. Matter of Fualaau, 21 I&N Dec. 475 (BIA 1996).
Moral turpitude has been found to inhere in an offense if it has as an element a conscious disregard of a known risk that causes, or creates the “imminent risk” of causing, death or very serious bodily injury. See e.g., Matter of Franklin, 20 I&N Dec. 867, 870-71 (BIA 1994) (conscious disregard resulting in manslaughter), Matter of Leal, 26 I&N Dec. 20, 24-26 (BIA 2012) (conscious disregard causing a “substantial risk of imminent death”). Sections 23103, 23103.5 lack that element.
COV. Supreme Court affirmed that reckless conduct cannot amount to a COV. See discussion of Borden v. United States (2021) at PC 207.