The Eighth Circuit has denied a petition for review filed by a Guatemalan woman found ineligible for cancellation of removal based on a Nebraska conviction for negligent child abuse of her stepdaughter. Before the agency, she argued only that her conviction did not match the generic federal definition of a crime of child abuse; before the court, she raised entirely new arguments, including that the agency relied on the wrong statutory provision and overlooked a petty-offense exception.
The Court held that these new arguments were unexhausted because the petitioner never raised them in her adversarial, counseled proceedings before the immigration judge and the Board. Since a reviewing court is one of review and not first view, the Court declined to consider arguments the agency never had the opportunity to address and denied the petition.
The full text of Lopez-Lopez v. Blanche can be found here: https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/26/07/251924P.pdf