United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 17-3713 ___________________________ Pedro Olea Camacho Petitioner v. Matthew G. Whitaker, Acting Attorney General of the United States Respondent ____________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals ____________ Submitted: September 26, 2018 Filed: December 6, 2018 ____________ Before WOLLMAN, KELLY, and ERICKSON, Circuit Judges. ____________ ERICKSON, Circuit Judge. Pedro Olea Camacho petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’s (“BIA”) denial of his motion to reconsider the BIA’s previous order denying him a discretionary adjustment of status. We deny the petition. I. Background Pedro Olea Camacho is a Mexican citizen who first entered the United States without inspection in 1987. He has been married twice since entering the country. He adjusted his status to lawful permanent resident on December 7, 2000, on the basis of his first marriage. During his application process for adjustment of status, Camacho failed to disclose that he was convicted of fifth-degree theft in Iowa on September 17, 1993. In March of 2015, Camacho was convicted in Iowa of two counts of indecent contact with a child. The charges related to alleged sexual misconduct between 1999 and 2002. The victims were the grandchildren of his first wife. Camacho pled guilty to both counts. Following Camacho’s conviction, the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) served Camacho a Notice to Appear charging him with removability under: 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii), as an alien convicted of an aggravated felony (his sexual abuse of a child conviction); § 1227(a)(2)(E)(i), as an alien convicted of a crime of domestic violence; § 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii), as an alien convicted of two crimes involving moral turpitude; and § 1227(a)(1)(A), as an alien who obtained admission via fraud in 2000 by failing to disclose his 1993 theft conviction. Camacho responded by disputing his prior conviction for theft and denying all grounds for removability. On May 26, 2015, the Immigration Judge (“IJ”) issued a decision finding Camacho removable as an alien convicted of an aggravated felony. Camacho then applied to adjust status through his second wife (a US citizen), and sought a waiver of his inadmissibility. At the hearing to evaluate Camacho’s application, Camacho testified that he was innocent of the underlying conduct of indecent contact with a child. Camacho explained that he pled guilty to the charges in order to avoid the possibility of a lengthy mandatory minimum sentence if convicted at trial, but that he had not actually -2- engaged in the alleged activity. He said the charges were the result of a plot by his ex- wife to frame him. Other members of his community testified to his good character. The IJ granted Camacho’s application, finding that Camacho merited a favorable exercise of discretion. The IJ acknowledged that ordinarily a conviction for sexual abuse of a minor would weigh heavily against granting discretionary relief. However, the IJ found that Camacho’s testimony and that of his witnesses “render[ed] the conduct underlying the [sexual contact] conviction dubious.” As a result, the ...
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