USCA11 Case: 19-14825 Date Filed: 03/31/2021 Page: 1 of 15 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19-14825 ________________________ Agency No. A079-397-192 MATTHEW JOHN HYLTON, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals _______________________ (March 31, 2021) Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, JILL PRYOR and ED CARNES, Circuit Judges. WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge: This petition for review requires us to decide whether a denaturalized alien is removable as an aggravated felon based on convictions entered while he was an American citizen. The Board of Immigration Appeals ordered Matthew Hylton USCA11 Case: 19-14825 Date Filed: 03/31/2021 Page: 2 of 15 removed as an alien convicted of aggravated felonies after his admission to the United States. But unlike most aggravated felons facing removal, Hylton was a citizen when he was convicted. Federal law provides that “[a]ny alien who is convicted of an aggravated felony at any time after admission is deportable.” 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii) (emphasis added). By its plain terms, this provision does not apply to aliens who were citizens when convicted. So its plain meaning forecloses the Board’s interpretation, and binding precedent, Costello v. Immigr. & Naturalization Serv., 376 U.S. 120 (1964), forecloses treating Hylton’s denaturalization as retroactive for removal purposes. We grant Hylton’s petition for review, vacate the decision of the Board, and remand for further proceedings. I. BACKGROUND Matthew Hylton was admitted to the United States as a nonimmigrant visitor from Jamaica in 1993. He became an American citizen on September 16, 2008. The day of his naturalization ceremony, Hylton completed a form in which he affirmed that, since his naturalization interview, he had not “knowingly committed any crime or offense, for which he had not been arrested.” This affirmation was false. Six days before the ceremony, Hylton had robbed a bank. His transgression did not stay undetected for long. The next year, he pleaded guilty to charges of armed bank robbery and unlawful transfer of a firearm. 18 U.S.C. §§ 924(h), 2 USCA11 Case: 19-14825 Date Filed: 03/31/2021 Page: 3 of 15 2113(a), (d). In 2011, a jury convicted him of obtaining citizenship by fraud. Id. § 1425(a). A district court then revoked his American citizenship. In 2018, the Department of Homeland Security initiated removal proceedings against Hylton. It charged him as removable because he had been convicted of aggravated felonies. 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii). Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, his convictions for armed bank robbery and for unlawful transfer of a firearm both qualify as aggravated felonies. See id. § 1101(a)(43)(E)–(F); 18 U.S.C. § 16(a); In re Sams, 830 F.3d 1234, 1238 (11th Cir. 2016). Hylton moved to terminate the removal proceedings. He argued that he was not removable in the light of the decision in Costello v. Immigration & Naturalization Service. 376 U.S. 120. In Costello, the Supreme Court held that a similarly worded ground of removal did not apply to an alien in Hylton’s position—that …
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