On remand from the Supreme Court, Holder v. Martinez Gutierrez, 132 S. Ct. 2011 (2012), the Ninth Circuit was obliged to vacate its previous determination that an applicant for cancellation of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(a) could impute his mother's residence to establish the statutory requirement of 7 years of continuous residence.
The Ninth Circuit then reached the noncitizen's alternative argument that his conviction for maintaining a dwelling for keeping controlled substances in violation of 16 Delaware Code section 4755(a)(5) (2002) did not terminate his own period of continuous residence. He had argued it might qualify as a single offense of possession for his own use of 30 grams or less of marijuana, which would not make him deportable and thus not terminate his continuous residence. The court rejected that argument summarily, pointing to the indictment which alleged he maintained the dwelling for cocaine-related crimes and a marijuana distribution crime.