The Board of Immigration Appeals has affirmed the denial of cancellation of removal under INA § 240A(a) to a lawful permanent resident of fifty years who was found removable based on a child abuse conviction, upholding the Immigration Judge's adverse credibility finding and discretionary denial of relief. The respondent testified that her grandson died from a ruptured appendix and rib fractures caused by CPR, but the Board found this account materially inconsistent with police reports, medical records, and news coverage establishing that the child died of acute peritonitis caused by blunt force trauma and drug exposure, with rib fractures at various stages of healing.
Applying de novo discretionary review under Matter of C-V-T-, the Board weighed the respondent's substantial positive equities — her decades of residency, thirteen U.S. citizen children, and roughly twenty-seven grandchildren — against her involvement in money laundering and alien smuggling, her child abuse conviction, three substantiated child welfare investigations, and what the Board called her "devious and disingenuous" efforts to minimize her responsibility for her grandson's death. Citing Matter of Richards and Matter of Burbano, the Board held that a lack of candor of this kind is a significant adverse discretionary factor that outweighed her favorable equities and dismissed the appeal.
The full text of Matter of Leticia Cornejo-Aguilar can be found here: https://www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1463461/dl?inline