Shoplifting Doesn’t Render Immigrant Removable From US

A South Sudanese citizen will get to stay in the US after showing that his conviction under a state shoplifting law doesn’t make him removable, the Eighth Circuit said Thursday.

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed the Board of Immigration Appeals’ determination that his conviction in Nebraska qualified as an aggravated felony theft offense, per the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Nebraska shoplifting statute broadly criminalizes those who those who steal with and without intent to deprive the owner of the stolen good, the appeals court said.

“Because an offender can be convicted under Nebraska’s shoplifting ...