Julio Sosa Uvalle v. Merrick Garland


USCA4 Appeal: 21-2418 Doc: 48 Filed: 03/10/2023 Pg: 1 of 10 UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 21-2418 JULIO ABRAHAM SOSA UVALLE, Petitioner, v. MERRICK B. GARLAND, Attorney General, Respondent. On Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Argued: December 7, 2022 Decided: March 10, 2023 Before WILKINSON and RUSHING, Circuit Judges, and FLOYD, Senior Circuit Judge Dismissed in part, granted in part, and remanded by unpublished opinion. Senior Judge Floyd wrote the opinion in which Judge Wilkinson and Judge Rushing joined. ARGUED: Jay S. Marks, LAW OFFICES OF JAY S. MARKS, LLC, Silver Spring, Maryland, for Petitioner. Amber Ashley Arthur, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. ON BRIEF: Nicole Littell Diop, LAW OFFICES OF JAY S. MARKS, LLC, Silver Spring, Maryland, for Petitioner. Brian Boynton, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Nancy E. Friedman, Senior Litigation Counsel, Brooke M. Maurer, Office of Immigration Litigation, Civil Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Respondent. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. USCA4 Appeal: 21-2418 Doc: 48 Filed: 03/10/2023 Pg: 2 of 10 FLOYD, Senior Circuit Judge: Petitioner Julio Abraham Sosa Uvalle—a citizen of Mexico—asks this Court to review a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismissing his appeal of an immigration judge’s (IJ) order of removal. As relevant here, Uvalle contends that the IJ and the BIA erred (1) by denying his application for cancellation of removal as a discretionary matter, and (2) by concluding that his conviction for identity theft under Maryland Criminal Code § 8-301(c) constituted a categorical crime of moral turpitude such that he required a waiver of inadmissibility to pursue adjustment of status. For the reasons that follow, we dismiss the petition in part and grant the petition in part, remanding for the BIA to consider whether identity theft under Maryland Criminal Code § 8-301(c) categorically constitutes a crime of moral turpitude for purposes of adjustment-of-status eligibility. I. Julio Abraham Sosa Uvalle is a native and citizen of Mexico. In 1987, he entered the United States with his mother and sister. Since that time, he has not left the country, he married an American citizen, and the two had a son. In August 2019, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) detained Uvalle, charging him with being present in the United States without inspection and admission, or parole, in violation of Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) § 212(a)(6)(A)(i), 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). Uvalle contended that he was properly admitted with a border-crossing card, and he applied for cancellation of removal under INA § 240A(b), 8 U.S.C. § 1229b(b)(1). An IJ pretermitted his 2 USCA4 Appeal: 21-2418 Doc: 48 Filed: 03/10/2023 Pg: 3 of 10 application for cancellation, holding that he was convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT) based on a 2009 conviction for identity fraud to avoid prosecution, in violation of Maryland Criminal Code § 8-301(c)(1). Uvalle filed an application to adjust status under INA § 245(a), …

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