9th Circuit Lets Convicted Immigrant Stay In U.S.

Claiming that the crime was not base, vile or depraved, a federal appeals court has reversed a lower court ruling calling for the deportation of a Mexican immigrant convicted of having sex with a minor.

Alberto Quintero was convicted and served an 11-month prison sentence after admitting that he had illegal sex with a teenage girl in 1998. Federal authorities sought to deport him in 2002 and immigration courts granted the order about a year later.

Quintero, who is married and has two U.S.-born children, appealed and remained in northern California until the notoriously liberal and often overturned 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on his case recently.

While the court acknowledged that legal residents can indeed be deported for committing crimes of “moral turpitudeâ€