Case: 19-10197 Date Filed: 07/14/2020 Page: 1 of 23 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19-10197 ________________________ Agency No. A043-024-298 CARLOS EDUARDO RENDON, Petitioner, versus UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (July 14, 2020) Before MARTIN, NEWSOM, and BALDOCK,∗ Circuit Judges. MARTIN, Circuit Judge: ∗Honorable Bobby R. Baldock, United States Circuit Judge for the Tenth Circuit, sitting by designation. Case: 19-10197 Date Filed: 07/14/2020 Page: 2 of 23 Carlos Rendon began living in the United States as a lawful permanent resident in 1991. Then in 1995, he pled guilty to resisting a police officer with violence. Under immigration law this offense qualifies as a crime involving moral turpitude (“CIMT”). At the time, Mr. Rendon’s sentence of 364 days in state custody did not affect his status as a lawful permanent resident. But Congress later changed the law. In 1996, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”) made him deportable based on his CIMT conviction. And in 1997, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (“IIRIRA”) created the “stop-time rule,” which meant people convicted of certain crimes were no longer eligible for a discretionary form of relief known as cancellation of removal. Approximately 25 years after his guilty plea, an immigration judge found Mr. Rendon removable and ruled he was no longer eligible for cancellation of removal on account of the stop-time rule. On appeal, Mr. Rendon now argues that it was error to retroactively apply the stop-time rule to his pre-IIRIRA conviction. After careful review, we conclude that Mr. Rendon is right. We reverse the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals and remand for further proceedings. I. Mr. Rendon is a native and citizen of Colombia who was admitted to the United States as a lawful permanent resident on June 5, 1991. On February 15, 1995, Mr. Rendon was arrested and charged under Florida law with one count of 2 Case: 19-10197 Date Filed: 07/14/2020 Page: 3 of 23 burglary with assault; three counts of battery on a law enforcement officer; two counts of battery; and one count of resisting an officer with violence. On July 17, 1995, Mr. Rendon pled guilty to all charges and was sentenced to 364-days imprisonment. On February 3, 1995, Mr. Rendon was arrested for possession of cannabis. He was convicted of that possession offense on January 10, 1996. On July 19, 2013, the Department of Homeland Security served Mr. Rendon with a notice to appear (“NTA”). The NTA charged him with being removable based on his conviction for a CIMT within five years of his admission, 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(i), and his conviction for possessing a controlled substance, 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i). Mr. Rendon conceded removability as to his controlled substance offense and denied removability as to his CIMT conviction. On January 14, 2016, the immigration judge (“IJ”) sustained the charge of removability for Mr. Rendon’s CIMT conviction. Mr. Rendon ...
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Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals