An Immigration Ruling With Teeth—If It Holds Up
21st October 2026
Sometimes a consequential immigration decision turns not on a new act of Congress or a ruling by the Supreme Court, but on whether an agency finally gives existing statutory language its full effect. That is the promise of Matter of A-V-O-, a Sept. 17 ruling by the Board of Immigration Appeals. The board concluded that an aggravated felony conviction can do more than make an alien removable: It can also make that person inadmissible as an immigrant because the conviction permanently forecloses citizenship.
That could prove quite helpful to the Department of Homeland Security. But promising precedent is not the same thing as a settled enforcement policy, much less a final judicial victory. How DHS uses this decision in charging cases—and whether the federal courts of appeals sustain it—will determine whether its promise becomes practice.