Nijhawan v. Holder

Manoj Nijhawan (plaintiff), a lawful U.S. resident, was convicted of federal mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering, none of which required the jury to find any specific dollar amount of victim loss, though Nijhawan conceded at sentencing that victim losses exceeded $100 million. When the government later sought his removal, an immigration judge found his conviction qualified as an "aggravated felony" — a fraud or deceit offense causing victim losses exceeding $10,000 under the Immigration and Nationality Act — relying on sentencing documents including Nijhawan's own concession, and the Board of Immigration Appeals and Third Circuit affirmed removal; Nijhawan argued the statute required a categorical approach that would look only to the elements of his conviction, which contained no loss threshold at all.