Case: 18-10792 Date Filed: 10/18/2018 Page: 1 of 6 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 18-10792 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ Agency No. A204-457-176 FIDEL CASTRO-MORALES, Petitioner, versus U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. ________________________ Petition for Review of a Decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ________________________ (October 18, 2018) Before ED CARNES, Chief Judge, BRANCH, and HULL, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Case: 18-10792 Date Filed: 10/18/2018 Page: 2 of 6 Fidel Castro-Morales, a native and citizen of Mexico, seeks review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ final order affirming the immigration judge’s denial of his application for special rule cancellation of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act. I. Castro-Morales entered the United States around 1993 and the Citizenship and Immigration Service granted his application for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in 2013. Two years later a state magistrate judge issued a warrant for Castro-Morales’ arrest because he punched his wife on her arms, back, ribs, and face, among other places. That warrant led to Castro-Morales admitting responsibility under a deferred prosecution agreement to assault on a female in violation of North Carolina law.1 See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-33(c)(2). The Department of Homeland Security issued a notice to appear, which alleged that Castro-Morales was subject to removal from the United States because he was an 1 Under the agreement the state agreed to dismiss Castro-Morales’ assault charge if he admitted responsibility to the charge and completed 18 months of probation. In 2016 a state court entered a judgment reflecting the terms of the agreement. In July 2017 the court granted Castro-Morales’ motion to set aside the 2016 judgment and reopened his case because his attorney failed to warn him that he could be deported if he pleaded guilty. See Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356, 369, 130 S. Ct. 1473, 1484 (2010) (holding that an attorney has a duty under the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of effective assistance of counsel to advise his client about the adverse immigration consequences of any pending criminal charges against the client). And in August 2017 the court granted Castro-Morales’ motion to dismiss the assault charge. 2 Case: 18-10792 Date Filed: 10/18/2018 Page: 3 of 6 alien present in the country without authorization. See 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). Removal proceedings began shortly after that. Castro-Morales conceded removability at a scheduling hearing but filed an application for cancellation of removal under the “[s]pecial rule for battered spouse[s].” Id. § 1229b(b)(2). That rule gives an immigration judge discretion to cancel the removal of a deportable alien if, among other things, that alien: (1) “has been battered or subjected to extreme cruelty by a spouse” who is a United States citizen and (2) is “a person of good moral character.” Id. § 1229b(b)(2)(A). An immigration judge may find that an alien who committed an act showing a lack of good moral character — domestic violence, for example — is nevertheless a person of good moral character if that bad act ...
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals