PUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 20-2028 JOSE NEFTALY CANALES GRANADOS, Petitioner, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Argued: September 23, 2021 Decided: November 4, 2021 Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and AGEE, Circuit Judges. Petition for review denied by published opinion. Judge Wilkinson wrote the opinion in which Judge Niemeyer and Judge Agee joined. ARGUED: Samantha Hsieh, CAPITAL AREA IMMIGRANTS’ RIGHTS (CAIR) COALITION, Washington, D.C., for Petitioner. Allison Frayer, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. ON BRIEF: Brian Boynton, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Jessica A. Dawgert, Senior Litigation Counsel, Office of Immigration Litigation, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. WILKINSON, Circuit Judge: Jose Neftaly Canales Granados, a citizen of El Salvador, challenges an order of removal based on his conviction for two crimes involving moral turpitude (CIMTs). At issue is whether the phrase “crime involving moral turpitude” is either unconstitutionally vague or violative of the nondelegation doctrine, and whether Virginia’s felony eluding statute, Va. Code § 46.2-817(B), qualifies as such an offense. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that the CIMT definition does not violate the Constitution and that Virginia felony eluding constitutes a CIMT. I. Canales Granados was born in El Salvador but was admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident in March 2001. In 2018, he was convicted of a series of criminal offenses, which he attributes to a multi-year struggle with substance abuse. On February 5, 2018, he pleaded guilty to Virginia petit larceny, and on July 31, 2018, he pleaded guilty to Virginia felony eluding, felony hit and run, and driving under the influence. For the latter three convictions, he was sentenced to 15 years and 60 days in prison. All but five days of the sentence were suspended, and he was instead sentenced to a residential addiction treatment program. Following his criminal detention, Immigration & Customs Enforcement transferred Canales Granados to the Farmville Detention Facility in Virginia. The Department of Homeland Security issued him a Notice to Appear. The Notice charged him with removability under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii) because he was an alien convicted of two 2 or more CIMTs not arising out of a single scheme of criminal misconduct. The crimes at issue were his Virginia petit larceny, felony eluding, and felony hit-and-run convictions. Canales Granados moved to terminate the removal proceedings. While he conceded that his petit larceny conviction was a CIMT, he contended that neither Virginia felony hit and run nor Virginia felony eluding qualified. On July 31, 2019, the immigration judge (IJ) denied his motion. The IJ agreed with Canales Granados that the hit and run conviction was not a CIMT. However, the IJ determined that felony eluding was. That conviction, when combined with Canales Granados’ petit larceny conviction, gave him two CIMTs, rendering him removable. He appealed to the BIA, which upheld the IJ’s determination. Canales Granados timely petitioned this court …
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