You see people get deported all the time for doing some fairly bad stuff. By contrast, it's somewhat surprising that we're trying to kick this guy out of the country.
Bryan Maie was born in the Marshall Islands but came to the United States with his family over 30 years ago, when he was a child. For those of you who don't know, the Marshall Islands have had (and have) a special status with the United States. The Marshall Islands became independent in 1979, but we continue to have a Compact of Free Association with them; they use the dollar as their currency, we provide their defense, they use the FCC and the U.S. Postal Service, etc. Significant for present purposes, citizens of the Marshall Islands also get to live, work and study in the United States without a visa. As a result, there are plenty of people like Mr. Maie who've essentially been here all their lives. Totally legally.
So after around 30 years of living in Hawaii, Mr. Maie gets convicted twice of petty theft, which involves stealing something worth less than $250. Which, of course, one shouldn't do. But in the wide pantheon of crimes, that's not the biggest deal in the universe.
But the United States seeks to deport him.
Mr. Maie represents himself before the IJ and BIA, both of which say that he's properly kicked out because he's been twice convicted of a crime of moral turpitude. By contrast, he gets some law students from Hastings to represent him in his Ninth Circuit appeal (good job, Hastings Appellate Project), and successfully argues that he's not deportable because Hawaii’s fourth degree theft statute isn't categorically a crime of moral turpitude (under our convoluted jurisprudence regarding what that means).
Not that the Marshall Islands is a bad place. But when you've lived in Hawaii all your life, I can see why you'd want to stay there.
