United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 19-2290 ___________________________ Myrna Lilia Herrera Gonzalez, lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioner, v. Jeffrey A. Rosen, Acting Attorney General of United States,* lllllllllllllllllllllRespondent. ____________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals ____________ Submitted: September 24, 2020 Filed: January 4, 2021 ____________ Before COLLOTON, GRUENDER, and GRASZ, Circuit Judges. ____________ COLLOTON, Circuit Judge. Myrna Lilia Herrera Gonzalez, a citizen of Mexico, petitions for review of a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals. The Board concluded that she was * Acting Attorney General Rosen is substituted for his predecessor under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 43(c). removable and rejected her arguments for a waiver of removability and for cancellation of removal. We deny the petition. The parties refer to the petitioner as “Herrera,” and we will follow that convention. Herrera entered the United States in 1993, and became a lawful permanent resident in 2002 by falsely representing that she was the wife of a citizen. Her husband had fraudulently assumed the identity of a lawful permanent resident and used that identity to become a naturalized citizen. Herrera later used her lawful permanent resident status to apply for naturalization, and she became a citizen in 2008. Herrera has four children who are citizens of the United States. In 2011, Herrera was convicted of second degree theft in Iowa. The government then discovered Herrera’s false statement about her marriage and secured an indictment for naturalization fraud. See 18 U.S.C. § 1425(a). After Herrera pleaded guilty to that offense in March 2017, the district court revoked her citizenship and restored her to the status of lawful permanent resident. See 8 U.S.C. § 1451(e). In December 2017, the Department of Homeland Security commenced removal proceedings against Herrera. The Department charged her with removability for procuring, by fraud or misrepresentation, her adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident. If an alien commits fraud or misrepresents a material fact to gain a benefit under the immigration laws, then she is inadmissible and may be deported. 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(C)(i); see id. § 1227(a)(1)(A). The dispute in this case involves an exception to that general rule. As applicable here, if the alien who committed immigration fraud is the parent of a citizen, and if that alien was otherwise admissible at the time of her admission except for grounds that resulted from the fraud, then the Attorney General may waive the provisions calling for her removal. 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(1)(H)(i). This so-called “fraud waiver” also waives “removal based on the grounds of inadmissibility directly -2- resulting from such fraud or misrepresentation.” Id. § 1227(a)(1)(H). The parties agree that relief for Herrera under the waiver provision would eliminate both one ground of removability and “the underlying fraud,” so we accept that assumption for the purpose of analysis. See Matter of Sosa-Hernandez, 20 I. & N. Dec. 758, 760-61 (BIA 1993). As such, a waiver would excuse Herrera’s fraud in applying for adjustment of status and make her a lawful ...
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