USCA11 Case: 19-13848 Date Filed: 12/30/2020 Page: 1 of 11 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19-13848 ________________________ Agency No. A055-816-798 BEVERLI GARCIA-SIMISTERRA, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (December 30, 2020) Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, HULL and MARCUS, Circuit Judges. MARCUS, Circuit Judge: In this immigration proceeding, Beverli Garcia-Simisterra challenges a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) affirming an Immigration USCA11 Case: 19-13848 Date Filed: 12/30/2020 Page: 2 of 11 Judge’s (“IJ”) order of removal because the petitioner had been convicted of an aggravated felony in Broward County, Florida. The IJ and the BIA found that Garcia-Simisterra’s Florida convictions for money laundering and workers’ compensation fraud were aggravated felonies because each conviction involved fraud or deceit in which the amount of loss to the victim exceeded $10,000. 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(M)(i). Garcia-Simisterra claims that the record does not support the requisite amount of loss because the statutes of conviction only required some amount of loss less than $20,000. But since the record, including the petitioner’s admission of guilt and a concomitant plea agreement, fully supports the agency’s finding, we dismiss this petition for review. I. The essential facts are these. Garcia-Simisterra is a citizen of El Salvador and has been a lawful permanent resident of the United States since 2007. In 2014, he and a co-defendant (Adalid Ramos-Rodriguez) were charged by criminal information with one count of money laundering, in violation of Fla. Stat. §§ 896.101(3)(a), (5)(c), and 777.011, and one count of workers’ compensation fraud, in violation of Fla. Stat. §§ 440.105(4)(b)(5), (4)(f)(3) 1, and 777.011. The two men were charged with the first-degree version of each count, indicating that the counts 1 The information filed by the State Attorney in Broward County appears to contain a scrivener’s error -- it cites § “440.1085(4)(f)3,” but no such subsection exists in the Florida code. 2 USCA11 Case: 19-13848 Date Filed: 12/30/2020 Page: 3 of 11 involved a monetary loss valued at $100,000 or more. See Fla. Stat. §§ 440.105(4)(f)(3), 896.101(5)(c). The workers’ compensation fraud count (Count 2) alleged that Garcia-Simisterra and his co-defendant “misrepresent[ed] or conceal[ed] payroll, classification of workers, or information” concerning Garcia- Simisterra’s company’s loss history to his insurance company “for the purpose of avoiding or diminishing the amount of payment of any worker’s compensation premiums, and the monetary value of the violation is $100,000.00 or more.” Garcia-Simisterra agreed to plead guilty to “Counts I and II charged in the Information” and to a separately charged count of operating an unauthorized money-service business, Fla. Stat. § 560.125(5)(a). In exchange for his pleas, the State agreed to reduce the money-service business charge from a first-degree felony to a third-degree felony. Garcia-Simisterra ultimately entered a plea of nolo contendere to the money-laundering and workers-compensation fraud counts. In exchange for his pleas, the State reduced the charges to third-degree felonies, which involve a monetary loss ...
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