Aggravated Felony Law and Legal Definition
A definition of "aggravated felony" can be found in the commentary to the U.S. Sentencing Guideline Manual § 2L1.2: "aggravated felony," as used in 8 USCS § 1326(b)(2), means any crime of violence, as defined in 18 USCS § 16, not including a purely political offense, for which the term of imprisonment imposed, regardless of any suspension of such imprisonment, is at least five years. The Immigration Act provided that the amended definition of aggravated felony applied to "offenses committed on or after the date of the enactment of this Act [November 29, 1990]." United States v. Lazo-Ortiz, 136 F.3d 1282 (11th Cir. Fla. 1998)
Prior to the enactment of IIRIRA, the law defined an aggravated felony as including; inter alia, "an offense that involves fraud or deceit in which the loss to the victim or victims exceeds $ 200,000." 8 USCS § 1101(a)(43)(M)(i). IIRIRA, however, changed the definition of "aggravated felony" by changing the requisite loss amount from $ 200,000 to $ 10,000. Furthermore, IIRIRA provides specifically that "the amendments made by this section shall apply to convictions entered on or after the date of enactment of this Act," IIRIRA § 321(b), and that "the amendments . . . shall apply to actions taken on or after the date of the enactment of this Act, regardless of when the conviction occurred", IIRIRA § 321(c). [Bazuaye v. United States INS, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2996, 4-5 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 17, 1997)].
